Negative futures
by metaldragon75767
Summary: sonic wakes up from being in staces for 11 years and alots changed. he finds most of his freinds are dead and the ones that are alive are ... different. can he get used to a world rulled by robots? what secrest lie in store for him?sixth chapter up!
1. Default Chapter

Negative futures

This is my first fanfic ever so don't kill me if its crap. The idea came from when i started drawing sonic characters as if bad stuff would happen to them when they got older and titled it 'negative futures' , so thats where the title came from andsome of the charctersappearances in thisstory( which i won't give away here!) ok enough of me talking, er typing. enjoy! or at least try!

Disclaimer : I don't own sonic or any over characters in this chapter

All I can remember, before this strange world of muffled sounds and blurred dreams, is a life which used to be mine. We had been running towards eggmans base, preparing to once again stop his plans of world domination. We had done this so many times that I had gotten beond cocky , and my arragant led to my down fall. Well , the last thing I remember was a sharp pain in my neck and my eyes closing, I havn't been able to open them since.

How long have I been like this, an hour, 50 years? I have so many questions as I exist only in this dream world. How did I get here? And what happended to the others?

Suddenly I felt something alight again in my mind. I felt the liquid around me more clearly and my eyelids suddenly came under my control again. I felt things in by arms and back and a mask over my face , helping me breath, but why? I couldn't take it any more. I opened my eyes and blurry vision returned. I jumped in supprise. How long had it been since I was able to see? To long. As the world spun into focas I began to get a grip of my surroundings. I was in somekind of glass tank, with ugly green liquid swirling around my body. The things I felt in my arms were tubes, feeding me liquid. So I have been I stacess. But who freed me? I then saw a shadowy figure standing by by tank watching as the liquid drained away. The figure then punched the tanks walls , shattering it into a million peices. As he began pulling the tubes from my arms I felt my consciousness slip. My vision clouded and I felt my mind sliping away again.

" t t ails? Whe re am I I ?" I said, fumbling with the mouth I hadn't used for so long. The figure chuckled and I heard his voice say

" its not tails, but ill save you anyway , I promise sonic" the figures voice was to deep to be tails , but who? I never got the awnser as I felt my mind shut down again.

My mind began to re open its self again, but I could tell that I had been asleep for a long time. I saw the same figure standing by the courner of the room I was now in that had rescued me, or was he capsuring me? I couldn't tell who he was as he had a large, tatty coat on and a hood that covered his face. When he saw I was awake he turned to face me, his face hidden in shadows.

" how ya feeling sonic?" he said in a low voice. I still didn't know who he was as my mind was still shuffling along at an anionly slow pace and my eyes kept wanting to close themselves.

" mhh, who?"i mumbled stupidly. The fugure laughed in a sad way and said

" well, you did know me, but I fear the face staring at you will be a strange one". I was beginning to get irritated and struggled to say

" just, show". The figure smiled sadly and said

"Very well". He lifted up his hands and threw of his hood. I gave alittle gasp in supprise. He waited for me to recover then took of his coat, revealing his full echidna body. I gasped again, suddenly memeroies and sence came rushing back and I bolted upright. I stared at him for a few seconds, unable to believe what I was seeing. He looked like someone I used to know, but somehow the resemberlence had almost completly gone.

" knuckles!"i wispered. He nodded and I froze in shock.

AUTHORS NOTE

what has happened to knuckles? and sonic for that matter, why was he in staces? and for how long? don't worry if you can't wait coz i plan on updating soon, possibly tommorow.


	2. A horrible new world

A horrible new world

second chapter! god I'm so dumb! I don't even know how to edit my profile, all it says right now is metaldragon and the one story I have done. Hopefully ill figure it out soon because I've got tons of other stories I want to put on. The next probably won't be a tragedy but a romance. Anyway thanks to shadows dark angel for reviewing , I love your stories! There so funny! and I'm sorry that id didn't put this on sooner. Anyway , can some more people review please I don't mind flames but only if you have to. OK on with the story! I fixed the many spelling mistacks and added more detail , as I got a couple of complaints about it.

DISCLAIMER . I DON'T OWN SONIC , KNUCKLES , VECTOR or any other character mentioned. I only own jarula or jaws.

" Knuckles !"I whispered. He nodded and I froze in shock. It was indeed knuckles, but he looked so much older. His eye had dark bags underneath them and gave his face a shadowed look. His muzzle had a thick stubble growing from it and his fur was messy and unclean . Scars dotted around his body, including one that sliced across his eye. His muscle bulk had increased dramatically and they know bulged out of his chest, legs and arm. Yeah , that's right, arm. I looked across and saw it. Messily joined by an array of random wires, His right arm was completely missing, replaced by a sinister looking three fingered claw, which caused his arm to look almost like a skeletons. It particular evident when contrasted with his right arm, which was thick with muscle. His remaining hand had a cybernetic finger poking out through a hole in his glove. It separated his end finger and other two, making his hand look very strange. Last his head was partially covered by metal which replaced some of his lost skull , blasted away in an explosion I was later to find out. One of his eyes was missing, replaced with a red and black artificial one , which jerked and swiveled in its socket and made knuckles look like a demon . I couldn't believe it. Knuckles looked so awful, his darkened appearance make despair flood through my heart. His one eye narrowed and he said

" Sonic , a lot has happened and you must try to understand it all, we don't have a lot of time". I couldn't get a grip on myself. One of my best friends was now a cybernetic mess. My breath rushed in and out of my lungs. All atempts to calm myself failed as my eyes wondered from knuckles arm to his eye, which gleamed in the candlelight.

"Knuckles what... your face and arm... I ...I". I shock my head at my loss and forced out the words " what happened?". He growled to himself and said

"Long story short sonic, you've been in stases 11 years, a lots changed". I couldn't believe what he was telling me! 11 years! But knuckles looked really old, as if years of worry had aged him. Then I thought of something, but I was almost too scared to ask.

" what happened to everyone else?" I stuttered. Knuckles closed his eye and folded his arms. A look of faint pain appearing on his distorted face. He sighed and said

" Are you sure you can handle this sonic?". I thought about this, probably not, but I had to know at some point. Slowly I nodded, my vision completely back in focus. The room I was in looked like an abandoned hotel room, with outdated and dirty wall paper barely clinging to the sides and a foul stain splattered in the shadowy corner. It was completely bare except a small dirty bed that I was sitting on and a chair, which Knuckles took a seat on. " Well , it all started in the eggman's base" said Knuckles, his face screwed up in concentration, causing me to notice the wrinkles even more , as he tryed to remember the old events. He looked up again and I noticed that one of his dreadlocks was metal plated like his old friends julie-su. " well, eggman managed to capture you with a sleeping dart and was planning to make copies of you, so he put you into stases". Knuckles sighed, obviously the worst was yet to come. I trembled, what would this negative future have in store for me? "Gradually he made various models of you and used them to take over the world, we thought back as best we could, but over time each one of use fell". Knuckles strange face screwed up again and I could see new pain flooding into his eye. I braced my self for more , but didn't know if I could handle it. "Finally there was only four of us left, me, vector, shadow ... And rouge, we took the chaos emeralds that we had and headed towards the fallen angel island, where eggman had set up base around the master emerald. We managed to defeat him, but in the process freed his most powerful clone of you, which can use the power of the negative chaos emeralds". Negative chaos emeralds? That was news to me!

"What are they?" I predictably asked. Knuckles once again sighed. They say if you sigh you get old quicker, and right now I believed them.

" Eggman created them before his down fall, they are copies of the chaos emeralds, created from his hate for you and his jealousy, so, they came out negative and extremely powerful". Knuckles began to shake. I saw a tear forming in his eye, he reached into his jacket and produced a bottle, which he took a few gulps from and continued. I was shocked once more, knuckles was drinking! But then I saw sense, this world was a terrible one, how else could he quell his sorrows? I hoped that drinking was the only thing knuckles did...

" Any way" Knuckles continued "Shadow was captured, I don't know what happened to him... Vector is still here with me, we narrowly escaped and went into hiding "said Knuckles, who was taking another sip from his bottle. I noticed he had forgotten something, or left it out on purpose. Rouge. She and knuckles started of as rivals but they slowly became friends, I had no doubt that they had fallen in love in this strange future. But the question was, what happened to her? I saw Knuckles gulp down the rest of his drink. He grunted in frustration and smashed the bottle on the floor. He then started looking in his jacket for another. As he searched I saw his shoulders shake and tears form in his eyes. I knew what I had to do.

"Knuckles?" I asked tentatively. He grunted in response, so I decided to continue. "Knuckles? Rouge didn't make it did she?". No response, but I saw his hands start to shake rather badly and he couldn't grip his coat properly. He yelled and threw it into the air, then hastily tried to wipe away the tears. I walked over, put a comforting hand on his shoulder and said " don't worry It'll be all right". Bad move. When I said it I must have struck a nerve. Before I could react he grabbed me with his metal arm and hoisted me into the air by the scruff of my neck. His fist was shaking and his eyes twitched.

" Don't saw it will be all right because it can't!" He spat in my fast as he spoke, the actions of a lonely, angry and depressed man. " Everyone has said that it will be all right all of my life and were they right! No!" He ran over to the boarded window with me still in his grasp, smashed the boards and thrust me almost all the way out. What I saw then I will never forget.

The air was thick with smoke and grime. Grey dirty buildings were littered here and their and some were reduced to rubble. Lamps flickered on and of and nasty looking green and brown chemicals oozed everywhere, accationally letting out a hiss when they came into contact with something and melting it away . Robots protrolled the streets, their flash lights looking for... Something. Suddenly one of the flashlights locked onto a pile of rubble and the owner walked over. A small head appeared out of the rubble. The eyes of the cat widened in shock as he saw the robot approaching. He disappeared and then reappeared moments later, a male adult, female adult and two children in tow. I then realized that the pile of rubble was their home, that was all they had. But soon they were about to not even have that. The robot raised its laser and the cats ran, but to not avail. The laser hit its target and the family disintegrated in a flash. The robot moved of, searching for more victims.

After I witnessed that, I felt the most depressed I have ever felt in my life. Knuckles lowered me to the floor as silent tears slid down my cheek.

"You see sonic, everything is not all right" he growled sadly. I gulped, trying to force back tears, but I couldn't. I closed my eyes and tried to wish it all away. I banged my head as I tried to forget it all, but it was no use. I suddenly smelt alcohol and open my eyes to see knuckles holding a bottle in my face. I reached for it and almost drunk it when I realized what I was about to do and threw it across the room, where it smashed on the wall. Knuckles got up and stumbled over to where the alcohol was oozing over the floor. He stared confused at the running liquid before sighing and pulled something out his coat which he now had back on. I saw through the tears him lighting something, at first I thought it was just a cigarette but then I noticed it looked funny. I gasped.

"Knuckles? Are you on drugs? " I said staring at him in shock. He looked at me a little dumb struck for a second then hide the little stick. He looked highly ashamed although his expresion was now hard to tell. He cleared his throat and said in an emotionless voice

"I need to show you more sonic, your not from our time but your stuck here, so you might as well get used to it and help us, or you won't last a day"

I gulped again, Knuckles was right . I had to start fitting in or id be doomed. I couldn't go back, so I focussed on the future and said to my old freind

"So, what do we do now?" Knuckles ran his hand through his matted locks and said

" For now we just survive, so ill show you the rest of our hideout". He moved towards the door and led me out into a dirty hallway. I noticed that although their were electric lights the rooms were lit with dim candles.

" The power was cut years ago" Knuckles explained as if he read my mind " The area is no longer used by the robots except for the dumping of broken machines that can't be melted down" we entered another room then climbed down an unstable rope ladder. " We stay here because we can use the machines they dump as our own, but we have to be careful, over wise... Well you saw what happened to those cats...". We reached a door. Knuckles warned me that we would have to be very quick and then stared telling me about how it could sometimes take hours to wait for a group of robots to move away and make it safe. But come on! IM sonic the hedgehog! No robot is to quick for me! I grabbed knuckles real arm and sped out the door, through the street down another alley and by the solid door which knuckles said was the entrance to their hide out. Knuckles jumped to his feet when I realized him and said

"Oh , I forgot you could do that...". He cleared his throat and banged on the door. A light ran over us and the door opened, allowing knuckles and I to move in. The laser was probable a piece of stolen technology that knuckles 'friends' had stolen and altered to work as a security device.

After crawling through some hand dug tunnels and being scanned a few more times, we reached an area that looked like a kind of meeting place cross pub. The room was dingy, lit by candles and a light which looked like it used to be a robots flashlight. A thick smell of smoke, alcohol and urine hung in the air. Random tables which non matching chairs were placed here and their and a few creatures sat at them, some drinking or smoking , other simply sitting their quietly, lost in their own heads . We reached a counter where vector stood. Behind him he had a few shelf's with boxes and drinks and a few pieces of broken machinery laid on them. When he saw knuckles he said

" Same as usual Knux?" Obviously not noticing a certain blue individual who happened to have 'died' eleven years ago. Knuckles cleared his throat rather loudly but vector had his eyes closed and his earphones were blasting some trash at full blast so he couldn't hear. Vector had changed too, although not as severely as knuckles had. Many of his teeth were chipped and a foul odor of weed smoke hung around him. His nostril had a ring pierced into it which connected to a chain, the hung under his chin and joined another piercing in his left nostril. His scales were dirty and burnt and his face was a little wrinkled with stress.

Vector , having not heard knuckles say anything, turned to the shelves and pulled of a couple of bottles, mixing the contents together. He slid over a foul looking mix of blue and drown liquid, which evidently knuckles 'usual'. Knuckles , who was getting a little impatient, grabbed his usual and threw it at vector, splashing his face.

" Arrgh! What the hell are you on Knux?" he yelled, tacking of his earphones and shaking the cheap beer of them.

" The same as usual but that's not why I came here" said Knuckles in his usual gruff voice that now had a hint of lowlife gangster. Knuckles gestured towards me and vector dropped his earphones in shock. His jaws hung open as he saw me standing their looking rather out of place.

"Holy shit! I thought you'd been clogged! Where the hell have you bin the last decade sonic!". I looked around helplessly and said

" Well I was locked in eggmans old base and placed in stases, knuckles freed me just today". Vector nodded in interest but then looked like he had figured something out. His eyes widened and he ducked behind the bar , re-appearing seconds later with a badly made laser in his hand. I had know noticed that the whole room was staring. Quickly they had all pulled out their guns , all of them aimed at me. Vector stuck his gun right on my chest and shouted angrilly at Knuckles

" WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING! HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT HE ENT ANOTHER FUCKING CLONE!". He panicked and dug the gun into my chest even harder as I hoped he woud'nt shot. I looked helplessly at Knuckles, who sighed and shock his head.

" honestly vector" he said calmly with just a hint of anger " you've known me for what? 15 years? And you still don't think I have the sence to check if he was a clone or not?". Vector eyed me warily and said while not removing the gun from my chest

" so hes not a clone?" He asked stupidly. Knuckles did his own version of a frustrated glare at Vector and said

" no , he's not a clone". Vector let out a huge sigh of relief and lowered the gun. As he did so the whole of the room relaxed and gradualy I heard shuffles of gun holders being refilled. I hung my shoulders. Already this world was proving to much for me ... And I hadn't even been here a day.

Suddenly , my stomach rumbled. I realized I was hungry. I turned to Knuckles who was lighting another split and angrily said

" Hey can you not do that!" Knuckles looked at me a but dumfounded then shrugged and threw the stick away, killing its heat with a stamp from his black boot . Satisfied , I continued. " Any way, do you have anything I can eat knuckles?". Knuckles grunted and turned to vector

" Got anything?" Vector turned his headphones back on and yelled into a doorway that led to somewhere else

" Jaws! Get your ass here now!". A grunt could be heard and a smaller croc walked out, dressed in worn leather and had a tattoo of some kind of tribal markings covering his face like a mask. The smaller croc looked at vector and said rudely

" What!". Vector took of his earphones and said

" Hey! Take these and fix them... Um... hey don't go yet! Did you fix that laser?". The teen rolled his eyes and said with adolescent impatience.

" No". Vectors eyes burned in fury and he said

" Well hurry up and fix it, oh yeah and get some food". The teen grunted and said

"What for?"

" For sonic, that who". Jaws sighed and said

" Whatever". He turned to go and I turned to knuckles and said

" Who was that?". Knuckles , who was about to light another joint, he through it away again and said

" That was jarula, the guy who fixes all out broken machine parts and he's also vectors son". I nodded. I figured some of us would have sons or daughters, I wondered if anyone else's offspring were around here. Or if any of us had a chance to have a child. I wondered if Knuckles did and that was why he was so upset about Rouge. But I didn't want to ask that question right now. All I knew was my life would never be the same.

AUTHORS NOTE

OK , could you do me a favor and review? too long, too short, too sad anything. or you could say its perfect... whatever , I don't mind. oh and one more thing, could you tell me some streets names of drugs please. I need it for my story cozy I don't have a clue what their called.


	3. The end?

The end?

Sorry about the horrible spelling. When I wrote the last chapter I kind of rushed it and I guess it shows. By the way, if your losing interest in this story don't stop reading! In the next chapter everything will start happening again so be patient. This chapter is only here because I wanted sonic to get used to his new life before I through him into a new adventure. Now , on with the story!

Disclaimer: sigh (IM already getting fed up with doing this) I don't own any of the sonic characters. The ones I own are jarula, shimmer and zero.

I pressed my back against a slimy concrete wall , Knuckles was to my side, a weird looking gun in his hand.

After a few days in the company of an older knuckles, vector and a few of their 'friends', knuckles has come up to me and told me that we would be making an assault today, and that I would need to come with them.

" WHAT!" I screamed, loud enough for the whole room could here. Several people turned towards me and Knuckles rolled his eyes

" yes sonic, why do you think I freed you anyway? "said Knuckles . I thought for a moment then said

" Because I'm your friend?" Knuckles opened his mouth but shut it again. What I said had thrown him. I still hadn't gotten used to the fact that knuckles and no-one else hadn't seen me for 11 years . To me it was like I had seen them just yesterday. This timeline was still terribly confusing to me. He shifted uncomfortably then said

" well yeah that ...but I also freed you could you could turn the tide of the war for us, so you've got to help".

So that was it, I had ended up in a battle I didn't want to fight in. But I suppose non of the others did either. Suddenly Knuckles communicator device flashed. He turned it on and the face of shimmer came up, a black male fox with eyes so shadowed they almost blended in with his fur. He was the teams sniper expert and was currently posted on top of our hideouts roof.

" talk to me" said Knuckles in a commander like way. The black fox replied with no sign of emotion.

" Neo was taken down, but I believe I have located the power source for the security robots" his screen fuzzed and yelling could be heard. The fox could be seen shooting at something with a primitive laser. Suddenly he vanished from the small view of the screen , leaving knuckles and me at a loss as to what happened. Soon the shooting stopped and the foxes head came back into view his hand covering the left half of his face.

" What was that?" Knuckles asked . The fox growled and said in an angry tone

" A standard laser guard, stupid fucker, it got my eye" the fox removed his hand from so that his eye was visible. It was nothing but a bloody mess, beginning to leak blood extremely badly . I grimaced at the sight and Knuckles sighed , too used to the sight of injury to be really bothered . He moved of, the rest of use followed. Jaruala walked behind me, a heavy laser in his hand. He gave me a dirty look , as I hadn't bothered to ask for a weapon. I didn't need it, I told him , but for some reason he thought that I was boasting about how tough I was. No chance. Being 'tough' is exactly what got me into this mess and right now I wished I was just normal, so that everyone's hopes were not resting on my shoulders.

Suddenly , a robot appeared in front of us, the blood of who I guess was Neo splattered on its front. Knuckles charged forward, using his mechanical arm to knock of an exposed scanning device. But suddenly, from around the corner of a scrap of old robot, another appeared, which was almost immediately shot down by vector. Another two appeared and I used my spin dash on one of them, knocking of its main laser but not destroying it. Another shot from knuckles gun finished it off, but soon two more appeared. Zero, a red tiger with white strips and four wheels were legs should, fired his weapon, destroying another robot. I did a spin dash into another, injuring it. But by the time I had finished my attack, five more identical robots appeared. I began to panic, we were being surrounded. For each robots we destroyed , another two appeared , exactly identical. These things must be being constantly churned out of a factory somewhere . I saw Knuckles dodging attacks and fiercely sending his arm through the power core of the robot , growling savagely as he did so He whirled round, sweat running down his forehead, but came face to face with a long laser gun.

Without thinking I spin dashed forward, knocking the robot aside. Knuckles jumped up and thanked me, then rushed of to tackle another robot. I saw vector and jarula working together to defeat the robots. The stood back to back and rotated as they fired their identical weapons. I turned round to see myself up against four robots. I panicked and did a weak spin dash on the front of one, but a shield covered it and I bounced of. I stepped back as they raised their lasers, gulping as I did so. There lasers fired and I jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding being burnt to cinders. I gasped for breath, next time I may not be so lucky. They prepared to fire again. I was about to run when two of them mysteriously spluttered and died.

The others turned around and faced upwards, aiming their lasers at the unseen threat. I saw the opportunity and spin forward, crashing through the weak, unshielded backs of the robots.

I glanced up and saw on the roof, with his modified sniper riffle, shimmer the fox , a bandage covering his shot eye . I smiled and gave him a thumbs up, to which he returned a simple nod. I shrugged, as far as I knew, this was about as friendly as shimmer got. When I looked up again he was gone, probably trying to keep his cover, I thought to myself.

" HEY SONIC! QUIT DAY DREAMING!" Yelled jarula as he fired almost endless shots out of his laser cannon. I shock my head and rushed over, getting their in a second. The young crocodile stood dumbstruck for a second, as he had never seen my amazing speed.

" Hey jaws, quit day dreaming" I joked . The crocodile, however, wasn't in a laughing mood and gave me an angry glare. Luckily knuckles came to my rescue and as he rushed up and said

" Come on sonic, we've located the control system!". I followed , wondering if we would end up winding our way through dozens of security systems in a gigantic base , that it would take all day to get to. But to my surprise I was Soon there. All it was a small box slightly dug in the ground. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion and said

" Is this it?" Knuckles nodded and got out a small , round discus. I watched , confused as he placed it on the box. It began beeping loudly. Knuckles turned to me and said

" Quick exit please sonic". I nodded and grabbed both his and jarulas arms, then began powering my feat. Soon we were being chased by many dark robots, their plating sinister and spiky. Suddenly , one particularly streamline on raced up to me , somehow matching my speed. I gritted my teeth as it aimed its gun at us. Suddenly , a low rumble shock the ground , slowly increasing in force. I looked back to see a enormous explosion coming from where knuckles had planted the small device. As the biggest shock wave from the blast hit us , I was thrown into the air, just about managing to keep hold of knuckles and jarula and miss the fire of the speeding robot as well.

" AH!" I shouted as I jumped out of the way , as it began firing again . Dragging alone an echidna with a heavy metal arm an a muscular crocodile wasn't exactly helping my speed and one shot from that laser and I'd never run again. I carried on sprinting at high speeds, jumping and dodging the robots laser half the time and the other trying to watch were I was going. I saw the robot swing round and come up behind me , forcing me to go faster with its spiky front and waste all of my energy. But I just kept going. However by now I realized that I had traveled too far , and was know running in a large empty desert with the occasional sign of an old ruined building. I looked directly in front of me and saw that , to my horror , we were heading straight towards a huge factory, its roof heading well above the dark clouds. Out of its base I saw hundreds of identical robots being pored out every second and out of its walls I saw just as many hovering planes and flying robots flooding out of its many doors.

What was powering this huge factory? I didn't have time to wonder as the robots began shooting. Quickly the had all detected me and I found my self swerving to my extreme left to right just to avoid the long range lasers. I knew I couldn't turn round, as that would lead a million robots to our secret hideaway. There was only one thing I could do now.

I reached the base wall, knuckles and jaruala helping to blast a path for me with their stolen laser and gun . I began running straight upwards, trying my best to avoid any plains that were coming from its walls , although one occasionally caught me by surprise and I had to spin dash out of its way , leaving knuckles and jarula a little dizzy and shocked.

By now the entire lot of robots had spotted us and were firing. Some used heavy weaponry like huge powerful bombs and others fired a continues stream of bullets. I heard jaruala yell in pain as a bullet hit him in the leg. I tried to pick up the pace , any more hits and he would be done for.

By now the door from which the robots came out of had stopped and only the aircraft were firing now, the ground robots left behind as I ascended higher and higher.

Then , I saw what I was looking for . A glow through the gloom of the murky clouds. My heartbeat began to race as I excitement swept through my body, I had found what I was looking for.

There , right at the top of the roof , balanced between two spikes that were draining its energy for the factory to use, was a ring. I yelled in triumph and spin dashed forward , knocking out the final defense force field that surrounded it. As I grabbed it in my hand , I felt a stream of energy flow through my body. Letting go of knuckles and jarula , I entered a powerful spin dash , firing forward from the building then swooping back , like a boomerang, to the factory. A smile crept onto my face as I approached that wretched factory.

" Your finished "I said under my breath as I speed towards it. Finally , I reached outside wall , using the rings power to rip through the machinery and wires and straight through the other side. I then rolled back up to the top of the building, quickly grabbed knuckles and jaruala, then jumped of the side. As I sped forward , through the junk desert , the factory exploded , lighting up the sky as a huge fireball ripped through it, like fire from a demons mouth. Pieces of robots and the factory itself rain down around us like meteorites. I looked back and grinned, feeling happier than I had for a long time. It was almost like the old days again, with my friends at my side and no cares in the world. Getting that feeling back again felt great, as is my old life had suddenly been handed back to me on a plate. Feeling the excitement and over confidence sweep over me like it so often did , I failed to notice the same robot that had been chasing me earlier was behind me once more.

I first noticed something was wrong when I heard a low moan of an engine and saw that knuckles was looking behind at something behind me , A look of shock and anger on his face. Next I heard a familiar clicking noise as the robot loaded its gun. My old life vanished once more and I spun round to face the robot , only to see that it had began firing its deadly weapon. I watched in horror as the bullets raced towards my eyes , trying my best to dodge a weapon that was specially designed to destroy me. I closed my eyes as I felt the bullets slid into my skull, ripping away tissue and skin in the process. I felt no pain and suddenly realized that I could feel nothing at all, as if my mind had begun to turn off. Then , from some isolated part of my subconscious, I heard the faint words in a robotic tone

'system...shut down" .All of my senses failed and I found myself slipping back into the feeling of non existence that I was freed from only months before.

So ...this was death...

AUTHORS NOTES

Oooooo , cliffhanger! Is this the end of the story? Or is their more to be uncovered? Sorry about making you put up drug names because I don't think i'll be needing them now. I remade the plot because the old one wasn't really that good and didn't make sence. In the old one I was going to have knuckles talking to some dogdgy guy about selling him drugs, but I didn't really need that in the story so I took it out. Sorry! The next chapter may take some time to come up because I want to read any reviews for this one first and try to take the advice that people give me. If your wondering why this chapter took so long you can thank celistial the hedgird , who pointed out all the faults with my old chapter and I had to make sure I didn't make the same mistacks with this one. Not that I mind, feel free to do it again celistial or anyone else. Is it any better? Or worse? Please tell me so I can improve it if needed. Im going on work experiance next week! woohoo! I think...


	4. A miricle , or a secret?

A MIRACLE? OR A SECRET?

fourth chapter! Sorry its taken me a while to update but I've been on work experience. Its soooo boring! This chapter may be a bit boring but after this one things will start to happen , I promise! As you probably can guess , sonic is not dead, otherwise the story would probably end. How did he survive five bullets to the skull you ask? You'll just have to read and find out...

DISCLAIMER unfortunately I don't own knuckles, sonic or vector. I do own zero , shimmer and jarula.

For so long, there was nothing. No thought, no feeling , no memory. Nothing. I didn't know who I was, what I was, I knew only emptiness. Yet , I heard something. A constant buzz of an emotionless voice , over and over I heard I repeat ' system... Shut down'... ' system ...shut down'... 'system...shut down'. The continuos beeping of the words that I did not understand kept my mind alive. The repetitive nature of the its rhythm kept my mind going in a circle, avoiding the end of its life.

Then , my thoughts all came back. My conscience, my memories, my sense of who I was. But unlike last time I didn't slowly wake up, my eyes didn't adjust themselves gradually to their surroundings. My body didn't slowly begin to become active again.

No , it came suddenly. Rushing in like an avalanche of knowledge. I instantly remembered the robot hat caught up with me, the factory ... the bullets. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was red. I blinked. I couldn't see what was in front of me. But it wasn't that my vision was clouded. In fact , it was working perfectly, incredibly strange for someone who was shot in the head not long ago. No , this red thing was very close to my eyes and that was why it was blurry. It took me a few seconds to figure out that the red thing was actually Knuckles, bending over me with a weird device that he held over my head. I didn't think he realized I was awake, so I didn't surprise me that he jumped in shock when I said

"What are you doing?". He looked , he saw me, my eyes open, fully awake and watching him, holding some strange device over me.

" ARRGHH!" He said jumping out of surprise just like a thought he would. He hurriedly tried to hide whatever he was holding over me and tried to get out of the room.

Not quick enough! I zipped in front of him, cutting off his access to the door. I had just been shot in the head and I was alive , no-one was that lucky. I wanted answer and right now Knuckles was the only person who could give them to me.

" How did I survive?" I asked predictably, staring at Knuckles intently as I did so. He seemed to want to avoid eye contact though and kept looking around me or up to the ceiling.

" I er , I guess you were lucky" he said blankly. No way was I excepting that excuse. I narrowed my eyes , getting slightly angry as I saw Knuckles trying to avoid the question.

" No I wasn't , what was that piece of machinery I saw you holding above my head?" I asked. Knuckles , still looking incredibly uncomfortable in my presence , sighed and said vaguely

" Well , technology has advanced a lot since you were last around Sonic , medicine is better" . I still didn't move. Knuckles was lying. I could tell. I kept staring at him, hoping my glare would force it out of him

" I don't believe you" I said flatly. Knuckles looked around as if the blank walls of our hideout would provide a believable lie to tell to me. Unfortunately for him , they just stood there as they usually did , providing no help at all. Still staring at the messy echidna, I noticed that he seemed to look at me as if I was different. He wouldn't meet my eyes as if held a secret inside, a secret I was determined to get out. I softened my expression so he perhaps wouldn't feel so intimidated and asked softly

" Knuckles , why won't you look me in the eye anymore?". He gazed at the floor, not meeting my less piercing gaze " What's wrong?". He looked up and our eyes met properly for the first time since I had woken up. He looked sad for some reason. But why would he be? I was alive right? That was what he wanted , wasn't it? He gaped at me for a few seconds, before sighing hopelessly and giving up.

" OK fine, you win Sonic" he said , gritting his teeth a little before continuing. " I used a fragment of the master emerald to work some machinery that kept you alive" he said , shifting his balance between his two feet . It seemed a reasonable answer , but I still didn't believe him. Why didn't he tell me this straight away? Instead of pointlessly avoiding the question . I asked the question out loud and got a believable answer instead of a weak lie. " The others don't know I have it , if they did they would probably use it in a super bomb, but it means too much to me to lose it like that" he said, looking at the floor again as memories of his older, better life came rushing back. He must have missed it so much, just like I did . It made sense that he would to cling on to things from his past just as I would in his position.

" Where's the emerald shard now?" I asked , my tone a little softer as I realized he was finally telling the truth. He realized this to and visibly relaxed , his face became less tense in the areas that it was still flesh.

" Keeping you alive drained all of its power" he stated , as if it meant nothing to him " Its gone". He looked up and our eyes , artificial and real , met once again. My expression remained plain and Knuckles waited to her my reply, his own face blank. Knuckles sacrificed the only thing he had left from his past to guaranty my future. He saved my life , with a cost of his own.

My expression softened and a smile crept onto my face. I reached forward and took Knuckles into a thankful hug.

" Thank you Knuckles! I know that emerald meant the world to yoooaarggggh!" I began, but was cut off when I felt Knuckles shove me off and across the room with such force that I thought I would have been knocked out again. I eventually came to a stop when I crashed into the opposite wall , coughing as the wind was knocked out of me. I weakly looked over to see Knuckles, who was fuming was rage and maybe even a little fear . Both of his eyes seemed to emit a red , evil glow as he stood there , breathing heavily through his teeth.

" DON'T EVER! TOUCH ME! AGAIN! YOU , YOU..." He bellowed, waving his hands as he did so as to emphasize how much he did not want to hugged. He looked a if he really wanted to say something at the end of that sentence. Or call me something. Probably the entire collection of swear words he knew. But he didn't. Instead he ended his sentence with a huge burst of yelling and ran out of the room. When I left I didn't hear his footsteps slow down, obviously he didn't want to be followed at this point.

Shacking my head, I carefully pushed myself out of the small , hedgehog shaped crater that Knuckles had smashed me into. I can understand him not really wanting to be hugged, as he was never really that kind of person anyway , even in the old days. Never the less wasn't that taking it a bit to far? I sighed and walked into the main meeting room , where I found Jarula , Shimmer and Zero amongst the others. I walked over to them , expecting to be greeted normally or perhaps even warmly after I destroyed that factory.

But instead tried to avoid my eye , as Knuckles had before. All exept Jarula, who gave me a filthy look , as if I had done something wrong. His leg was lightly bandaged , covering the hole that the bullet had left. Seeing that made my insides twinge with guilt , as I was partly responsible for that injury and probably the scar it would leave behind. I felt up to where the bullets had pierced my own skin , expecting to find deep gashes or bumpy, ugly scars. But there was... Nothing? No that couldn't be right? Could it? I checked again , carefully running my hand over every part of my forehead , but still found no evidence of a fatal injury. Something was not right here...

It was then that I realized that the whole room had stooped whatever they were doing and were now facing me. I had expected this . Before I was captured , everyone used to stare at me , especially after I had won one of my many battles. After all , I was there hero. However , before they wore expressions of awe and excitement , I guess because they had gotten to see there hero up close and for real. But here , the expressions were very different. Most looked afraid , as if I would suddenly jump up and murder them all. Others , such as Jarula and Vector , looked incredibly angry. I gulped and rushed out of the room , before they all decided to take out there anger on the newest member of there team.

Over the next few days , I began to notice more odd things. When ever I went to find Knuckles , he would be in a small huddle with a group in deep conversation. When I would approach , one of them would spot me and tell the rest and they would scatter , leaving me wondering what I had done. Whenever Knuckles was on his own he would be equally uncooperative. I would approach and he would ever pretend to be busy or ignore me completely. I had also began to notice flaws in his explanation as to why I had survived. He told me that the emerald shard had used up all of its power keeping me alive and that was why he hadn't shown it to me. But didn't the emeralds just fade in colour when there power was used up? If he was telling the truth then why didn't he just show me the fragment? There were many things that were beginning to not add up and after three days of constantly being thrown evil stares and being ignored , I was beginning to get really pissed off. I decided I would force the truth out of Knuckles , no matter what it took. I would threatening him , insult him , blackmail him , anything that would make him talk. I made my way to his room and was about to walk straight in when I saw sitting on the edge of his bed , reading something and muttering to himself. I hide behind the door way and strained my ears. But his mutterings were too quiet and I barely heard a few words. I leaned closer and moved my face found the doorway. It was hard to tell in the dim light but Knuckles looked as if he was in pain , emotional pain . I squinted. Wait , no , it can't be. I hide from view again , rubbed my eyes to try and improve my vision in the hazy dark and tried again. I got the same result. I saw them reflecting the narrow beam of light from the doorway. Slowly sliding down his cheek. Tears. Knuckles was crying , but why? Did this have anything to do with how I survived those bullets or why everyone was acting so strangely? I would have to find out.

" What do I do?" I heard Knuckles say aloud to himself. He sounded very troubled about something , although yet again I was unsure what. I then heard him heave himself of the bed and started shuffeling , miserably towards the door , his mechanical arm let off a random burst of steam. Not wanting to know what he would do if he found out I was spying on him , I quickly ran down the hallway , out of sight from Knuckles.

The next night , saw him walking into a dingy room which I hadn't seen before. Within a few paces the darkness engulfed him and I didn't know what he was doing. I heard the scrap of a chair as he sat down. I heard several others breathing inside. This was obviously some kind of secret meeting and I was guessing that since it was in the middle of the night and that I was not included that the topic would be me.

" What do you all want?" I heard Knuckles impatient voice ask an unknown collection of creatures. I immediately knew that Shimmer was one of them since he was the first to answer.

" This has gone on long enough Knuckles , you have to get rid of him , he is a danger to us all" he said , in his usual emotionless tone. I heard uncomfortable shifting before Knuckles spoke again.

" Why? He has done nothing wrong! He could help us win the war!" He said , trying to defend me. What he said was right! I had done nothing wrong! Yet I was treated like a criminal. I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a new voice , this time Zero's.

" And what if he finds out? Do you think he would still be loyal then? Think about it Knuckles! If sonic finds him , it will be the end of us all!". Woah! If I find who? I wondered who else they were talking about and why it would be so dangerous if I found him? For a few minuets I heard a few shuffles and uncomfortable coughs . I waited until Knuckles spoke up again , his voice was plain although occasionally it wavered , indicating that he was covering something up.

" All right , I'll get rid of him". I heard his feet hit the ground as he stood up and began lazily shuffling out of the room. I was just about to dart of when I heard Vector saw in his gruff voice

" You made the right choice Knux , I knew that guy was trouble" . I couldn't see Knuckles expression but judging from the rough grunt that Vector got as I reply I was guessing that Knuckles couldn't care less what the crocodile thought. I reminded myself to try and get the truth of Knuckles tonight and ran off , avoiding being spotted by the group that I was spying on.

So I had just found out there was someone else in the picture to , and , by the sounds of it , I wouldn't like who this mysterious person was. I would just have to find out when I went to met Knuckles latter that evening.

At around 1 , I crept into his room , not really bothering to check if he was awake or not. No-one around here seemed to sleep at night , although I wasn't sure why. When I enter the doorway , sure enough , there was Knuckles , awake , sat at the end of his bed and smoking some kind of drug which I didn't want to know about. Through the poor light I couldn't see what a mess my old friend was in . But when he spotted me and turned on some kind of primitive light , it was pretty obvious that something was wrong.

His fur looked extremely matted and soaked with dried tears and his eye was red and bloodshot. Many bottles where laying around him , some of them smashed and others half empty. He sat hunched , uneasy , nervously chewing his glove as he sat , trying to figure out what he would do. When he looked up at me , he removed the glove from his mouth and sighed sadly , as if the fact that I came reminded him of something he wanted to forget. For a while he just sat there , looking at me but not saying anything , his eyes looking dead and unfocussed. He crushed the bottle he had in his mechanical claw. Then he then started to speak but slurred his words , obviously drunk as he didn't really make sense.

" Not really fair is it? Either way I have to sacrifice someone , its not like I want to make these decisions , but no-one else can either " Fresh tears slid down his face " Why is it always me?" He pulled out another bottle from under his bed and struggled with the lid . He grunted and dropped the bottle , wear it smashed on the floor and the liquid inside flooded out , soaking the miserable concret floor . He bellowed unnecessarily and buried his face into his pillow , making pathetic sounding noises that came out muffled through the pillow.

Raising an eyebrow I wondered over . It wasn't right to take advantage of a drunk man when he doesn't know what he's saying but I didn't really have a choice . I had the feeling Knuckles would never tell me in his normal state.

So I sat on the end of the bed and asked straight away , hoping to trick him into answering

" Knuckles what are you keeping from me?" I said . He looked up . Maybe asking Knuckles while he was drunk was a good idea after all , I thought , as it seemed he would tell me after all. However I soon changed my mind when Knuckles mumbled a response

" I can't tell you , its metal , no feelings ...Yet your the only thing left that survives , apart from him , but you could be worse , could destroy use all " he sighed , as I tried to make sense of his drunken words. Would did he mean , I could be worse? I became even more confused when Knuckles moved closer to me. He put his arm around me , so it gripped my right shoulder. I was getting freaked out now . I didn't want Knuckles trying anything while he was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. Party because I wasn't gay and nether was he and partly because he would probable rip my own arm of if he ever found out I had let him do anything. I started to get up and said

" Well I better be going , see ya Knux" I began , but for once I wasn't quick enough as Knuckles got up and grabbed my shoulders again , this time with both hands, I winced as the mechanical one dug into my bone.

" No you can't go ... I need you Sonic" said Knuckles in a pathetic and pleading way , his face slower inching closer to mine . I struggled , truly petrified now. But Knuckles held my shoulders tightly , preventing me from avoiding whatever he planned to do to me. As his face became only a tiny distance away , I closed my eyes , still squirming again his powerful grip. I turned my head , hoping to avoid contact. But instead of feeling something soft and moist against my lips , I felt something hard and sharp hit the top of my head . Pain erupted from that spot and I opened my eyes , realizing that Knuckles had just struck me with his cybernetic limb. Clouds appeared around my eyes and my head seemed to empty as I dropped to the floor , cold beer and glass scraping my face as once again my mind faded into the darkness.

AUTHOR NOTES

Woah! I don't have a clue where that bit at the end came from! I certainly didn't plan to have Knuckles turn gay on Sonic. Not that he has by the way , I just thought I'd put that in , I mean , people do weird stuff when there drunk. My friend fell asleep in a bin! Anyway sorry I haven't updated for AGES! I've been on work experience and I finish later than I would at school. I've really tried to spell things right but spelling is the thing I'm worst at so bare with me. I just realized that Sonic is knocked out a lot in this story , like three times! Well I don't think I'm going to do that anymore , coz if he keeps getting knocked out he'l go brain dead! And the story will become repetative . Anyway I'm gonna start answering reviews now.

**tailfeather **- no! don't die! coz you wont be able to read the rest of my fic! oh yeah and as for tails... you'll see...

**shadows dark angel- **thanks for reviewing again!

**celistail the hedgird -** oh my god! you actually said somthing nice! keep reading coz its going to get better and hopefully i will get the spellings right too!

**sonanyfan 4eva-** amy is dead!

Oh and one more thing . When you review , could you put who your favourite character is and second favourite if you want to. I just want to find out who the most popular one is and I don't mean from this story . Just in general . thanks.


	5. A secret revelied , an old freind return...

A secret revealed , an old friend returns

Fifth chapter! And this is where everything starts to come together! No more knocking out Sonic after this... hopefully.

Disclaimer - I don't own sonic , Knuckles or any of the others . The ones I own are Shimmer , Zero and Jarula.

When my head finally began to clear of the smoke and sludge that glued it up , I realised that my back was bent at a weird angle and my face was being rubbed against something gritty and dry. I opened my eyes , not getting the same surroundings as I had woken up in the previous two times. I realised that I was being dragged along the ground and the dry , gritty thing which I felt was the dirt that I was being pulled across . My arms lay sprawled out in front of me , the underside of them caked in dust , indicating that I had had been dragged for a long time prier to when I woke up. I also noticed that the inside of my mouth was also filled with dirt , as I obviously neglected to close it while being unconscious. I grumbled in disgust and spat it out best I could , before going back to figuring out why I was being dragged through the machine desert. Since my feat where being held I struggled to turn my body around , twisting my neck at angle so I could see who I was captured by.

Knuckles , from the odd angle I was viewing him from It was hard to tell , but I was sure it was him , I even saw his mechanical arm swinging back and forth as he walked. I saw grim looking robots on either side of us , surrounded , there spiky plating reminding me of the one that had shot me . I was sure we were as good as dead and yet , they didn't attack . Instead they seemed to be leading us somewhere , I was really getting sick of being clue less all the time.

Suddenly the dragging stopped and my body came a halt , my head stooping right before it hit a sharp rock that jutted from the dead earth . Suddenly I heard Knuckles hard voice say to someone

" IM here , now give me what I want" his voice ringing with impatience . He was answered by a flat , robotic voice , saying

" Our leader requests you bring it to him" . Knuckles growled with frustration and said

" Fine! But this better not be a trap" . Suddenly , the dragging started again and my mouth was filled with a fresh mound of dirt. I grumbled and spat it out , only to have my head rammed into the sharp rock that we had stopped by. Rubbing my sour head I realised that he surface changed from lifeless dirt to hard , cold steel , which made me shiver on contact . I noticed we had entered large doorway and were still being followed by the escort robots . Hauntingly they stuck to our sides , hovering with no visible form of thrust. I was sure each and everyone of them were ready to fire , making me tense up with stored tension. Suddenly I heard a loud scrapping noise and looked back to see the massive door closing . I sighed and let my face fall back onto the floor , seeing my final escape being destroyed.

Then , I heard a faint voice . It sounded familiar . I lifted my head up again to see Shimmer , Jarula and Vector holding onto Zero as he powered his machine wheels at full blast , approaching the massive door. The fox and crocodiles flailed behind him in the force of his speed , looking like loose pieces of fabric that were attached to his arms. I heard Shimmer shout again

" Knuckles! Don't do this! You know that if you hand him in , we will all be doomed! Listen to be!" he screamed , his voice breaking as his shouts turned to cries of desperation. At the sound of his voice Knuckles turned , his eye narrowed in fury . His face screwed up into a lion like growl and he bellowed

" I told you to LEAVE ME ALONE!" . He dropped me , were I was automatically retrained by the robots that still surrounded us and faced his friends. I struggled but it was no good , there grips were even stronger than Knuckles. Knuckles raced up and jumped , swinging round and kicking over Zero with such force he skidded across the desert , his wheels spinning uselessly in the air . I gasped as he ripped the gun from Vectors hands and bashed it over Jarula's head , the young crocodiles eyes rolled in their sockets and he collapsed backwards , knocked out cold. Next shimmer produced five knifes in each hand , holding one in between each finger . He threw them at Knuckles . But as they sailed through the air , Knuckles lifted up his mechanical arm and twisted it at varied angles with unbelievable speed and accuracy, Deflecting every blow . But Shimmer wasn't down , he growled and pulled out a pistol , shooting between Knuckles legs . Knuckles jumped up and split his legs open , narrowly avoiding the bullets . He looked down and then up again , his dreadlocks flying as he sent his fist into Shimmers stomach , the dark fox gasping as the wind was knocked out of him and blood flew out of his mouth . I stared in dread as I saw Knuckles incapacitate every one of the creatures that were apparently his friends . I couldn't believe it! Knuckles ...a traitor . The one person alive now who I thought I could honestly trust. I struggled and cried out , my voice turning into a screech but I didn't care . I wanted to get out my fury for Knuckles and did so by letting of every swear word I knew in Knuckles direction. Soon , my words turned into primitive screeches , as I struggled against the grip of the robot. He was my only friend , the only one I had left. Tails, Cream , Amy , Rouge , Shadow , all dead . Now my only friend had betrayed me. I wanted to kill him! I wanted revenge! I wanted to rip out his dreadlocks , smash his ribs , break his skull . I wanted him dead . In that instant I broke down , all the horrible memories of the last few weeks came rushing back in a blast of fury , all of directed at the source , Knuckles. For minutes I simply thrashed around , forgetting that I didn't know where I was or where I was going . But soon I seemed to run out of energy , I felt my mind tire and I let my body slump, only being held up by the grip of the robot . When I looked up I saw Knuckles staring at me , as he had been for the past few minutes . I took deep , quick breaths as I tried to recall the energy that I had lost when I had my mental break down . I saw his face was plain and he was staring at me as if I were a possession , not a person.

" Well , aren't you even going to tell me why you just ruined everyone's life?" I spat , trying to make my words sound as menacing as possible . My eyes narrowed to so they didn't even show a hint of contentment or any other positive emotion. He stared at me , his expression unchanged , then he turned.

" Like I said , this better note be trap" he said , addressing the robot and completely ignoring me . That set me off again . Before I knew It , I was thrashing around and yelling all the way down the corridor that Knuckles led me down , insulting him and everything else I could see around me.

Through all my rage I failed to notice how much the surroundings had changed. Outside the few buildings were ruined and dirty . The land always shadowy through the smoke covered sky and all the sounds you heard were the moans of robot engines and the occasional hiss of acid as it burned a substance on contact.

But inside the machine kingdom. Things were very different. Everything was made of smooth, clean high tech material , coloured silver and black and bright through artificial lighting. Wires and pipes ran everywhere and currents seemed to pass even through the air . There were millions of sounds of machines hovering , being built and building over machines accompanied by the constant blare of radios issuing commands. To sum up the whole thing , it was like a giant city , a city occupied by robots . It was spectacular to see , but nether the less no better than the outside. The steel and metal meant everywhere looked cold and unwelcome. With no sighs of anything real signs of life . I watched the robots drone on through a large window , no motives , like soulless ants. The whole place was just a huge machine, always producing robots . Nothing else . A cold , lifeless factory.

We reached a huge doorway , which slid open smoothly . When we entered the room , some not as voluntarily as others, all the robots left , including the one that was holding onto me.

I raced forward , still focussed on my goal of harming Knuckles in any way possible. But as I approached him something came down around me and my face slammed into glass , causing my nose to throb painfully. My head was having a heard time today.

I moaned and rubbed it , realising that a glass tube had come down around me and forgotten about ripping out Knuckles heart just for now. I looked around , still confused as to why I was here in the first place . Knuckles stood just out the tube , his arms crossed and his face plain , waiting patiently for someone . But who? I had the feeling this person was the 'him' I kept hearing about in Knuckles secret conversations with the others . The ones that now lay outside , beaten and injured . My anger for Knuckles flared up slightly at that thought , but immediately calming down again as I heard mechanical feet approaching. The door opposite to one we had come through opened and a small robot came through it , its details hidden by the shadows. It was agile in appearance and looked more animal like than the other robots I had seen , which mostly resembled hovering planes. I waited anxiously as it scanned us , the mechanical eyes fixed on me.

Suddenly it spoke , in its cold mechanical voice that seemed familiar somehow it said

" I see you have bought it , just as I requested , Thank you Knuckles" . Knuckles growled and frowned , clearly he didn't want to be exchanging conversation with this cat like robot. I wondered why this one was so different from the rest. Was it there supreme leader? And what did I have to do with all this anyway?

" OK robot , I bought it , now give what you promised!" Knuckles said , his tone on the verge of sounding threatening . The robot shock its head , showing very deep personality for a robot . It replied with an almost playfulness in his voice and said

" Someone's in a hurry aren't they? Why don't you stay for a while? We have a lot to catch up on". Knuckles eyes narrowed in suspicion

" What do you mean?" . The robot laughed and said

" You don't recognise me do you Knuckles?"

" No I don't , know give me what I want!" Said Knuckles loudly , his rage taking over. The robot tutted and shock its head . Meanwhile I was watching it closely , becoming intrigued with it . It looked so much like one of us , its frame work slender and smooth . Its shape seemed almost too familiar. I continued to stare at it , something bothering my mind . I knew it . Somehow I knew it. Although it paid little resemblance to any of my old friends and its personality didn't match any of them either. Yet something was there , something ... Familiar , something that I recognised. But what?

Suddenly its attention was diverted back to me. It activated the jets on its back and flew over , landing just outside my tube . I stepped back and my spines hit the side of the tube , stopping me unwillingly. I glanced back quickly before swinging my head around again , facing the strange robot in the eyes . Eyes which I swore held more personality than they should. Lights inside its framework flashed UN-orderly and it said

" I am assumed that Knuckles doesn't remember his old friend , but you too? This is too much for me to handle". I drew back , growling threateningly.

" Get away from me, you robot scum" I said , making my tone as threatening as possible as my heart raced from fear. At these words the robot threw back its head and laughed. I was so shocked I jumped , this time knocking my head against the top of the tube. Groaning and rubbing my head , I watched as the robots laughter eventually calmed down . This robot continued to puzzle me . I had never seen a robot show any sign of happiness before , let alone laugh! I glanced over to Knuckles and saw that he too looked vaguely confused , although it was difficult to tell as most of his face that I could see from that angle was metal. Suddenly the robot replied.

" That's rich! Coming from you!" It said , its voice still holding tones of amusement. Its statement confused me . What did it mean by that? Then Knuckles spoke up again , breaking his momentary exclusion.

" It doesn't know , we haven't told it" he said , still sounding slightly angry. The electric one turned to him and said in surprise

" It doesn't? I thought you would at least have the decency to tell it what it really is". Not wanting to be excluded and still as hell confused I yelled.

" What do you mean? I know who I am! IM Sonic the hedgehog! And why do you keep calling me 'it'?" I yelled , my voice coming out muffled through the thick glass. The robot smirked and said

" This is most amusing! He thinks he is Sonic!" It laughed again and I was beginning to get angry again . I grinded my teeth and screwed my fingers up against the glass , imagining smashing it to pieces. The robots laughter ceased and it said " Well , if you think you Sonic" it begun , but I cut it off , shouting

" I am Sonic!" . The robot stopped , waiting for me to finish and said again in a slightly annoyed voice

" Like I said , if you think your Sonic , then you should have recognised me straight away!" It said , smiling evilly and moving its face to the glass. I drew back again and it said while sighing

" Well if you can't figure it out I guess I'll have to give you a clue" . He looked over to Knuckles , to see if he was listening. He was , for once his patients was holding and he stood there , arms crossed , with a stern expression on his face , waiting for the scene in front of him to unfold.

" Lets put it this way shall we" the robot said , turning back to me " If you were real , this would be a reunion of the old team Sonic". What? What did that mean? I stared at the robot in disbelief , no , it couldn't be , not him . Sure he was always good at mechanics but I never thought he would do that to himself...

" Tails?" Said Knuckles in awe , taking a step forward, not sure what to believe. The robot that claimed to be Tails turned and faced him , replying with a voice that I now recognised

" Yeah , its me" he smiled warmly , while I stared in shock. Tails , my best friend! My brother ! He was alive! Covered in wires that snaked around him and armour plating that seemed to suffocate his skin. His eyes replaced by electrical cameras that glowed red when he was angry. His voice now a synthesiser , that only contained a fragment of his old one. His two tails , striped of their flesh and muscle , the bone now covered in circuits and plating. But it was him , underneath all that machine rubbish was my best buddy. Right now , it didn't matter that the world was so wrong , it didn't matter if Knuckles was a traitor or if I was in the middle of enemy territory . None of it mattered , because it had found my best friend.

" Tails!" I yelled out happily , the tube releasing me from my confinement. I rushed over , enclosing him into a hug and crying into his steel chest . Tears of joy . Knuckles stood aside , still unsure of what to think , his body frozen in the ice of shock. But I knew I recognised his voice , it was him and now , with his help , we could defeat my clone in our old team , just like old times.

Or so , that's what I thought...

After a few moments of happy memories and thought flashed through my head , I felt myself being picked up the back of the neck. Tails threw me , across the room and into the opposite wall , backing me cough and choke. Tails approached me , no longer talking warmly like he used to but like the robot he was. He stopped a couple of meters away from me , his insides flashing through the transparency of his front panel.

" Like I said" he droned , looking down on me as if superior . " If you were real" . I stared at him in confusion , something was wrong here , something was very wrong . I stared at Tails , still a little awe struck from seeing a dead friend and asked

" What do you mean? Not real? What's going on?". I looked at Knuckles , who turned away , looking ashamed and guilty. The robot rolled its eyes and said while narrowing its eyes and bringing them to my level.

" You don't get it do you?" I shock my head , my voice seemed to have taken a vacation to Florida , my mind full of fear and doubt. The robot stood up again and said in an evil voice.

"Your a clone , a clone of Sonic the hedgehog , a mechanical copy "

His word seemed to echo in my mind. It couldn't be true , it just couldn't! I was real! How come I felt pain? How could I not know if I was a clone? A dozen possibilities spun around in my head , each one hurt my heart a little more.

" I don't believe you!" I screamed , my voice full of desperation and doubt . The robot sighed and said

" Fine! You want proof! I show you!". Suddenly the walls seemed to come alive. Wires escaped tiny doors and circled my wrists and arms, entangling me against the wall . Tails raised his arm , which morphed in front of my eyes into a small cannon device. The see through tank that was mounting in his lower arm filled up with liquid as I struggled against my bounds, the tight wires pinching my skin , if it was skin.

" This is sulphuric , reactant z" said the robot , inspecting the content of his newly formed cannon as the liquid swirled round inside it . " It is a highly unusual and rare acid that is designed to melt a particular artificial product used in the manufacture of certain things, including artificial skin" he finished and begun walking over to Knuckles , who had vastly been ignored. My heart thundered as I saw the truth approaching , a truth I really didn't want to hear. I clenched my teeth from nerves as Tails grabbed hold of Knuckles real wrist , poring half the contents of the container onto it as Knuckles struggled against his mighty , robot grip. He let go and Knuckles ran to the other side of the room . Apart from being covered in a sticky and apparently foul smelling substance , as he was wrinkling his nose in disgust , Knuckles was fine. Now it was my turn. The robot approached , the container automatically refilling itself for another use. I struggled once against the wires grip , my efforts proving once again futile. Tails raised his arm , stopping just a few meters from me again and fired his weapon. The acid fell on me like rainwater , slowly soaking my fur. But to my horror I began to realise that its touch was causing me pain! I flailed as the pain grew worse with each new drop . I smelt burning and didn't dare look at my body. Eventually , the artificial rain stopped and I felt jerky and strange. Suddenly , a mirror came out of the floor , letting me see the truth.

I looked up and my heart sank , as I saw the horrible image in front of me.

The skin and fur began to drip of , turning into blobs of sticky mess and running down the body , sizzling when they reached the flat , featureless floor. Sparks radiated off of the body , which twitched and splutter in the manner of a dying machine. And underneath , underneath the now slime like skin and dissolving fur , I saw metal . A cold , hard, lifeless eye socket came into view when the skin around the eye dripped of , holding in a wire coated ball that was the replacement of an eye. The neck was revealed as a two concave pipes that were supported the skull , bleak and UN-life like. Ribs became apparent when the some of the chest gave way , gnarled and spiky like the devils skeleton. I gasped as my right arm gave way , underneath a two joints of metal melded with pipes . I ripped of my glove . Revealing twisted metal claws , shiny and evil. Mechanics could be heard from within steel plating , no heart at all , just a power cell.

The reflection looked like a corps . A corpse of something evil and twisted , something that would forever rot it hell . But it was me. Half of my fake skin falling away , letting me see the monster inside . My eye swivelled in its socket, examining the reflection of the other , which was still covered by artificial skin. I hung my head. There was the proof . I was a clone . A mindless , cold blooded , murderer.

A clone...

AUTHORS NOTES

If that didn't impress you then I don't know what will! I worked really hard on this and that the reason it took so long to come up. This isn't the end of the story! In fact , its really just getting started! The next chapter should be up within the next two weeks to you'll have to wait. By that way , what happened to all the reviewers? Is this story getting boring or something? And why aren't you telling me what your favourite characters are? I know you don't have to but it would be really good if you did. If you tell me then ill tell you lot , or you could just look on my profile to see... Anyway please review! I want to know if the direction this story is going on is the right one! Oh yeah IM planning a prequel to this , it will be called 'dark pasts' and will show how some of the stuff happened that doesn't get explained here , such what really happened to Knuckles and how Vector got a kid.

**shadows dark angel - **thanks for revewing again , you were the only one! oh yeah and Shadow isn't dead. if you keep reading you may find out what happened to him...


	6. Unknown destiny

Unclear destiny

DISCLAIMER- I still don't own any of the sega characters , if it did , they would look very different and Cream even wouldn't exist. The ones I own are Jaruala , Shimmer and Zero.

My life , my purpose of existence , my very identity. Gone. All with three words , three words that would haunt me forever . ' Your a clone' ' a clone' 'a clone'.

They echoed , torturing my soul. Killing my hope . I had no drive . There was nothing, no hope, no life . Even my personality was not my own.

The wall began to move , it turned around as I was captured. But I didn't care . Who cares if the robots won the war? I barely bothered to keep my eyes open as Knuckles struggled against the robots that had come to capture him. Why did it matter if he was killed , he wasn't 'my' friend. He was Sonic's and Sonic was dead , who was I too pretend to be him?

Tails stabbed Knuckles in the neck with a dart and after a few seconds , the echidna dropped to the ground , knocked out , or worse...

Then the wall closed behind me and I was left In complete darkness , the only sounds my newly revealed systems , as if trying to remind me what I really was. They moaned and shifted , doing some operation that I didn't even though about. Is sighed , could my life get any worse? Well , I suppose it could , if I even had a life.

I was taken out of the thoughts of myself when the wall opened up again and the robot that used to be known as Tails walked in, the light blinding me as it flooded in. I barely lifted my head , not caring about anything anymore. The robot could do anything it wanted , because I no longer had the will to live.

" Your awfully quiet , considering how much felt you had to get out earlier , I thought you may have been curios , after all , their are many things you can do" he said , his eyes flashing with faint traces of red. I didn't move , my eyes firmly closed . I wasn't listening to anything that robot had to say , he wasn't my friend , I didn't have any friends. " I guess it all makes sense to you now , doesn't it?" Said the robot , walking circles around me. My uncovered claw twitched. He was right , all those secrets , secrets the others were keeping from me , it all had to do with the fact I was a clone. The device Knuckles tried to hide from me , it must have been for fixing machines. " Its a shame" said Tails , continuing to taunt me as best he could " You could be so much more , you systems are much more than a copy of Sonic , you are technically superior to him, why not use your hidden strength? Join me and we will make everyone like us! Superior life forms!" it concluded , clenching its hand in a fist. I felt my own claw tighten and I looked up , my revealed eye staring coldly at him. Maybe he was right. Why should I remain loyal to Knuckles anyway? He didn't tell me that I was clone. I had a right to know! He must have planned to use me! Use me to defeat the robots and then destroy me! He must have known from the very beginning! That bastard! That fucking bastard!

My mind was made up. I opened my mouth , some of the skin still flapping where it clung on for dear life. The jaw underneath clicking as I moved I up and down , the hydraulics within pumping steam for its movement , the undamaged artificial tongue still letting me talk , although perhaps I had a robotic voice box of my own?

" I will join you" I said simply , no point on wasting my breath on pointless conversation. The mechanical fiend grinned , rubbing his hands together.

" Good! Now obey my commands!" He said . I sniffed rudely , I would obey , but only if suited me. The floor opened up and a panel rose from within , almost a metre across it contained only one creature.

His face shadowed by his dreadlocks, crouched low , venerable , like a dog waiting to be put down. My lip curled into a snarl. I would be the one to do it. I would end his miserable life once and for all! His arms chained , his feet tied together. His breath shaking , laboured , as If my models friend given him a few kicks before hand. The acid still covering his fur , slightly sticky and matted because of it. He sighed , coughing and spluttering weakly. His muscles flickered and spasmed , the needle in his neck causing obvious side effects. Tails grinned evilly.

" But first a test" he said , jerking his head in the direction of the weak echidna.

I approached . Ready to end his worthless life. Tails stood to the side , nodding , signalling that I could go. My fist unclenched and I flexed my newly discovered claws , their sharp ends would easily tear through his unworthy flesh . My feet steeping slowly, inching towards him. Deliberately slow. I wanted him to suffer , emotionally and physically , just like I had.

I came to a stop, no more then 10 centre meters away from his crouched form. I stared at him , my new eye creating a look that went past hate. He knew his destiny , he knew his mistake . But I wanted to remind him , to make him suffur and then to kill him.

" So Knuckles , how long were you planning to keep it up?" I said calmly, my tone of voice betraying what I felt inside. " How long were you planning on lying to me? Giving me false hope? Putting me through hell and back?" I said , my voice rising , my mechanics letting of a burst of electricity. " I thought I knew you , I thought I could trust you , even if I'm not the real Sonic , not really your friend , I would have thought you would have had the decency to tell me what I really was! But no! You kept it from me! Kept me guessing! Kept it a secret? And you know what! I've had it! Maybe the real Sonic would have forgiven you some day , but not me , I'm not Sonic , im just an evil robot , SO I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!" I said , rising my claw above my head. He looked up , no hope left in his dead eyes. Only despair and guilt. For him , this was the end. Tails stood to the side , watching with no sign of any emotion , he didn't care either . Maybe he should , Knuckles was his friend , or at least he used to be . But I didn't care what Tails did . This would be my revenge . I would make new friends , or lead a life of solitude. Whatever path I took , one thing was for sure , Knuckles would not walk it beside me.

My fist came down, smashing him with machine perfect force . His steel plating split and he cried out in pain , a little blood leaking from its metal prison. He whimpered and cowered over and I laughed. This was the same creature that had bragged all those years ago about how tough he was and now , he cowered and cried , under the pressure of a lowly robot. I punched him across the jaw , his head snapping to the side and dreadlocks flying , little splatters of blood appearing on the steel floor. He coughed and more blood dripped from his mouth , soaking his short stubble. Then I kicked him , my hard metal foot causing a sickening crunch when It made contact with his ribs. Tears rolled from his eyes and he shivered , wriggling against the grip of the wires , desperately trying to escape his horrible torture. But he wouldn't , he wouldn't escape until he was dead , dead by my hand.

Again and again I kicked and punched , making sure to use the visible robotics to remind him of what he had done. He moaned and coughed , letting the pain rush through him because he had no other choice. Back and forth he was knocked , as each new blow from me caused his body to chance direction again , a fresh supply of blood came with every kick.

Then I stopped. This was it . I would kill him . I would deal the final blow. My face hardened . I wasn't enjoying doing this , no pleasure was coming from his punishment. Only grim satisfaction , but it was enough to tell me that it had to be done. I raised my hand again , ready to stick him on the neck and break his connection to life. He looked up , still trembling and I stopped. The look in his eyes , that mournful look , it froze me. I couldn't move. What was wrong with me? He betrayed me and was going to leave me to die , so why was it so hard for me to return my uncompleted fate? Tails watched from behind , I had no idea what he was thinking. My fist , held above my head , ready , but not moving. Knuckles coughed and opened his bloody mouth . He gaped a few times before struggling to get out the words.

" I'm... S s Sorry..." He spluttered pathetically.

Those two words. Those stupid words. I had heard them all my life , mostly said with no real meaning. Thrown around with every irrilivant thing that went wrong . But now it was different. Knuckles sounded like he spoke the words from his heart and they rung with truth. I couldn't believe it. Two measly words stopped my powerful assault. Two irrelevant sounds halted my plans of revenge. How dare he! How dare he apologise! After all he's done to me he have the nerve to say he's sorry! That wasn't good enough! Nothing could save him now! Not even I fake apology.

My anger rushed back and I tensed up my arm again. All logic or feeling flew out the window replaced by pure fury. I threw my hand down , making sure to create enough force to shatter his spine. This was it . No going back. Knuckles stared at me , his eyes full of panic , he wriggled frantically and twisted around , frantically trying to avoid the blow. But to no avail , nearer and nearer my strong , mechanical arm got . Closer and closer. It was almost there , about to hit , about to smash away my troubles.

But then , I felt it stop. Something was holding me back. I twisted round and sent forth my other arm , trying to smash whatever was holding me back. But that blow was met with a equally powerful one and my hand was caught, twisted round behind my back and held there , causing immense pain through my body if I tried to wriggle away.

Still furious , I yelled and thrashed. But I was still held tightly. Would I ever get to kill that snivelling echidna? Not in the near future it seemed , as he seemed to have some kind of weird guardian angel , one that kept stopping me from getting to him. Speaking of which , who was holding me?

" Stop struggling! You fool! I need Knuckles alive! He could be a valuable addition to our team" came Tails voice from behind me , his claws digging into my arm painfully. Why did I feel pain anyway? Surly that was a disadvantage in battle? Why would my design include something like that? I stopped thrashing , my of level rage still fairly high.

" Why? Why do you need him when you have me?" I said , trying to look at Tails face over my shoulder. He shrugged and said

" We like to use every opportunity to its full purpose" he said.

" Hmmph " I said rudely. Tails released me and I stood up quickly , not liking the fact that he looked superior to me when I was lying pathetically on the floor. Knuckles looked up at Tails in confusion , as if he had expected him to let him die. Suddenly the platform came back to life and he was dragged under slowly. He looked at Tails and gave him a nod of thanks. I quickly wiped my head round to view Tails reaction. I blinked. Were my eyes malfunctioning? Or did Tails just smile at him? Knuckles then looked at me. I was surprised that instead of a look of despise and a warning of revenge , I his face softened and he said slowly and painfully

"I did it ... for her" then disappearing under the floor. I was shocked! Who was he talking about? I had a theory , and if my theory was correct , Knuckles may not have been such a horrible person after all . Maybe he shouldn't have deserved all that pain I gave him earlier.

I started shacking , maybe this place wasn't so good after all . Maybe I was on the wrong side? But who should I choose? A robot who used to be my best friend but has lost almost all of his personality through weird modifications? Or my other best friend? A broken down drug addict who could have potentially betrayed me for his own selfish reasons? I didn't know what to do , but I certainly wasn't staying here. I jumped into a spin dash and smashed threw the wall , pieces of steel flying around randomly.

" What are you doing?" Said Tails angrily , following me out of the hole. I turned round , gave him one of my old , confident smiles and said

" Sorry bud , this place ain't for me! I gotta go!" My voice full of the old enthusiasm . Tails stood , a little shocked , as I continued to smile. But slowly , the old Tails seemed to be reawakened and he smiled too , giving me a thumbs up . I laughed and got ready to do another spin dash , but before I could , robots appeared in front of me , using what looked like transporter technology. I skidded to a halt. So they thought they could stop my road to freedom? I'd show them! I jumped up and smashed along all four of them using me spin dash , causing them to explode in a typical robot manner. I turned and got ready to say goodbye to Tails. But before I could , more appeared out of thin air. I jerked to the side , shocked by their random appearances and smashed roughly into a wall. The robots took advantage of my momentary disability and seized me by the wrists. I struggled. So close! I had almost been free. Then it hit me , Tails!

" Help me!" I pleaded , yelling in his direction. The robot fox however , did nothing. I watched confused as the robots holding me began dragging me away. " No!" I yelled , thrashing against my captures. Tails watched , doing nothing . " Help!" I yelled desperately " Help!". But he still didn't move , only watched me , his robotic face unreadable. Is sighed. I thought I had a friend , but it turns out it was just another lie. I hung limply in the grips of the robots , knowing from experience that once a robot grabs you , there is little chance of escape. My feet dragging along the ground , one of them all pipes and wires. A tear rolled down my eye as I was reminded of the fact that I had no life , no friends. I looked up at the last minute and saw Tails , still watching from afar. His eyes narrowed sadly

" I'm sorry" he said , his synthetic voice making it almost impossible whether he was sincere. I closed my eyes again as he vanished from view and I was dragged along another long corridor. The jets of the robots creating a warm air current below my feet. The hum of machine life still audible from behind those walls. After what seemed to be an eternity we reached the end of the featureless corridor and entered another set of huge doors , into a room filled with darkness. The doors closed and my sight was stolen , the jingle of chains the only sound I heard apart from my systems running and the pumping of liquid around my fake veins.

A sudden weight on either hand and a cold pressure told me that I had been chained once again. The robots left and I sighed , trying to walk away to test how long my chains were. However , after only a few paces something caught the front of my right leg and snaked around it. I fell to the floor as the chain tripped me up , my jaw landing roughly on the cold floor.

" Ow" I said , pushing myself of the ground. I got up and brushed myself off , the chains creating a metal rustling sound as I did so.

I sighed and leaned against the wall , my droning systems beginning to annoy me.

" Who's there?" Said a dark and slightly familiar voice from out of nowhere. I jumped and yelled , the chains rattling as if they didn't want to be left out. When my heart stopped trying to jump out of my chest I looked in the direction of the voice , of course not seeing anything as it was pitch black. Suddenly , the voice spoke up again. " Sonic? Is that you?" It said in the same dark tone as it had used before , a dark tone that sounded awfully familiar. Wait , it couldn't be... But wasn't he dead?

" Shadow?..."

AUTHORS NOTES

Well , there you go , 6th chapter! I may not update for a while coz I have about 7 exams coming up and some coursework to do , plus I'm not exactly sure how to continue this story. I have over ten reveiws! Woohoo! That probably doesn't seem that much to you but this is my first fic remember. Im on three peoples favourites! Again your probably thinking 'big wow'( sarcastically) but to me its great! Anyway once my exams are over I have a four day weekend so expect a lot of updating around that time. See ya!

**shadows dark angel- **Yep , you were the only onewho reviewedlast time. im glad you like the story and are keeping so loyal to it. By the way , did you like the suprise ending of this chapter?

**alone in the dark**- hey thanks for revewing and fo putting me on your favourites list , im really not doing bad for my first fic am i? oh yeah and as for you spiders , her some ... spider food?

**flurry blurry**- hi thanks for reading the story . i know that the first chapters have bad grammer ok so you dont actually need to remind me! im probly gonna get mon to remind u 2 read again so prepare for more!


	7. See no evil

Chapter 7- See no evil

" Shadow?" I asked in amazement.

" Yeah , it's me" he said. Was it my imagination, or was did his voice have a hint of anger in it, even fear?

" I can't believe your alive Shadow!" I said. Knuckles had told me he was captured, not dead, but I hadn't thought of the other Sonic clone letting him live. But here he was. He sniffed rudely in reply to my comment and replied with increasing venom in his voice

" Why do you care Sonic! Your the one that put me here". What! My brain did a double tack. Oh right! He thought I was the clone that killed all of the others. This would be difficult. Shadow was never the most trusting person, but when he thought an enemy was in the same room as him, he wouldn't believe anything I would say.

" Listen Shadow, I know this gonna sound strange and like a trick but, I'm not who you think I am!". He huffed and said

" Yes Sonic, I'm not stupid, I know your not a clone like you lead everyone to believe, it's the real you in there, robonics device still working even though he dies years ago". Wait! Was he saying that the Sonic who has been leading these demon like robots through the apocalypse was in fact, the real me? I shock my head. I would have to find out later. This new news was would in fact help me. All I had to do was show him I was really a robot and then... And then show him, that I was on his side.

" Look Shadow, I don't know why the other Sonic put you in here, or why he is still loyal to robotnic, but I'm not him"

" Whatever" came his predictable response. I grabbed his hand with own, uncovered, claw-like one. He started to struggle but then realised that the robot hand that grabbed him was my own. I heard him mumble the word ' What?' To himself, as I moved his clenched hand over to my head, letting it run down the robotic eye and numerous wires. Next I bought it to my chest, making sure his fingers ran down my unnatural bones and circuitry. Finally I rubbed it over my arm, letting him feel the bone pipes and metal network.

When I was done, I let his hand drop, leaving him a few minuets to figure out where his loyalties lied. There was a long, almost unnatural silence, through which the only sounds where my electronic veins seeping blood through my copied systems. I heard Shadow sigh and could almost see him frowning through the darkness. I smiled slightly. Shadow never would have been smiling right now, even if this had happened when I was...normal.

Finally his voice broke the stretching silence. It seemed confused and slightly worried.

" I thought we had destroyed all of you" he said in a shallow tone. By 'all of you' I assumed he meant the clones, how many copies were there?

" No, I remained in the old lab, locked away, Knuckles freed me "I replied, hoping I was convincing the most untrusting hedgehog in history that I was on his side.

" And, he wiped your destructive programming?" He said, his voice not giving any clues to whether he believed me or not.

" No, I never had it. At first I thought I was the real Sonic, then Tails told me and now I'm here". I felt Shadow growl next to me and said in a hard tone

" Tails, that scumbag!". There was silence once again. I absent mindedly fiddled with the chain around my forearm, twisting it around my metal fingers. " So you have been in contact with Knuckles, Vector and Rouge?" He said calmly, although I could tell there was some anticipation building up in his voice. I smiled to myself and said

" Knuckles freed me, remember? And Vector, yeah I saw him too" I said, remembering the last member of Shadows short list. " But Rouge? I thought she was dead". I heard a groan from Shadow that almost made him sound like he was in pain.

" Rouge is dead? No wonder I haven't heard anything from the guards" he paused, his voice showing sadness for the first time since I had encountered him. " Knuckles, imagine how he has felt" he finished, his voice mournful. My eye widened and I said

" Were they a couple?" I asked, curios. I heard Shadow give a gentle, proper laugh and he said

" Well, not officially, they never kissed or anything. But you can tell from the way they look at each other, there was something going on there". I shock my head in disbelief 'poor Knuckles'. Deciding not to linger on this painful subject any longer , I asked Shadow hopefully

" So, do you believe me?". I heard him sigh and there was silence, he was obviously trying to figure out whether I was trustworthy or not. I hoped he would say yes, having Shadow on our side mean we had a powerful ally, that was if Vector and that lot would let me back now they knew the truth.

" I guess it doesn't really matter if I believe you or not, either way I could potentially be killed, either rotting away in this dungeon or risking my live with you" Shadow said. I smirked. He never did like to admit someone was right, he would always twist it so he sounded smarter. " But I never did like hanging around clone, which you should know since you have Sonic's memories". I nodded, he was right about that, I don't think I , he had ever seen Shadow standing still for more than ten minuets. " So, I guess I will take my chance with you, I assume you have a way out of this place?" He finished, a hint of humour coming through in his voice. I smiled as well, I had done it, I had convinced Shadow not to rip my throat out. Now for the hard part, getting out of here.

I noticed while I had been absentmindedly twisting the chain round my finger, one of the metallic claws had gotten stuck in the hop of the chain. I growled slightly and tried to pull it out, but that only resulted in me twisting it round even further. I gulped when I realised what I may have had to do. True it was only a finger and could probably be easily replaced if lost, but pulling it out of it's joint, even an artificial one, had to hurt.

I took a breath and pulled, ready to feel the slow pull on my joint as the claw slowly popped out of place. But , funnily enough, the pain never came. I continued to pull my finger until, eventually, the chain itself snapped in half.

I stood, dumbstruck for a second as my hand came free of the chain, still with its five fingers and flopped gently to my side. I heard Shadow shuffle around and ask

" What happened?". After snapping back to reality I grinned and said

" I think my friend, I just found a way out of here"

So after pulling Shadow free of his own chains and spin dashing the walls down together, we found our selves in the same corridor I was led through to get to my temporary cell.

" Yes!" I shouted in triumph, clasping my hand over my mouth when I realised I may alert the security robots. With a huge grin plastered all over my face, I turned to Shadow, expecting him to seem happy too, or at least satisfied. But his back was turned and he seemed to be staring into space. " Shadow?" I asked in concern " What's wrong?". His ear twitched and he turned around, his eyes closed. This puzzled me.

" Sonic" he said, his voice wavering slightly. I frowned , my face growing slightly shadowed in the low light.

" Yeah..." I said, urging him on. With his eyes still clamped firmly shut he continued with

" While I was here, in that miserable hole of a cell, I had continuous visits from several types of robots, as well as Tails himself" he stopped, took a deep, shuddering breath that made me panic. Since when did Shadow become afraid of anything? I also wondered what Tails would visit him for, hoping it wouldn't be anything, inappropriate. " They used anyway they could to make my life a living hell, slicing my skin, burning me with red hot metal spikes. But worst of all, much, much worse, was when they took that electric spike to my eyes". I looked him over, true enough, his whole body was covered in huge, manky scars, much like Knuckles own, but these were far more numerous and lacked the fur to cover them. But what alarmed me the most was what he had said about his eyes. Did it mean he was...

" Blind" he said, opening his eyes. I felt my heart pull with sympathy and my mind freeze with shock. His once sharp, red pupils were now an empty colour of white, like a layer of mist that covered them. No longer did his eye possess separate parts, it now all swam in that empty fog, forever blinding him. I couldn't believe it. Who had an evil enough heart to do these horrible deeds against my friends?

" Shadow I-" I begun, but was cut off.

CRASH! The wall behind us collapsed, revealing the same robots who had captured me last time. I gulped and turned to Shadow, who's white, useless eyes where swinging wildly.

" What? Where?" He said in confusion, not aware of a robot approaching his from behind. Without thinking I dashed forwards, grabbed his hand and dragged him along, my ears flattening back to lessen drag. We had to get out here, and now. Although where we would go, I didn't think about. " Sonic?" Asked Shadow uncertainly, as he felt the movement of my running feet but couldn't see the destination.

" Just hold on Shadow!" I snapped, swerving to the right after a robot transported in front of me.

We rushed through the corridors of the robots base, desperately seeking a way out. Twice I had tried to spin dash down one of the walls down, but twice I had failed, the building obviously constructed of something far stronger than brick or steel.

But I kept my pace up non-the-less. Running full pelt down the corridor with Shadow half clinging to my back, trying to avoid my spines as I ran. I felt myself sweat as I became desperate, running down another fork in the corridors. Running until the lights went out.

I fumbled around blindly in the dark, flattening my already swore nose as I stumbled into the wall. I tried to stay calm, hoping that I wouldn't loss Shadow in this blanket of darkness and preying that a robot wouldn't find us.

" Intruder located" I heard a metallic voice rung out behind me. Frustrated I said

" Oh sh-", when suddenly a quite hum rang out and a enormous pain erupted in my legs. I collapsed. The lights flashed to life and eliminated a giant of a robot, holding up a smoking cannon barrel arm, it's red eyes flashing. I looked down when the pain had died away enough for me to squeeze open my eyes, instinctively wanting to know what damage had been done.

I wish I hadn't.

My legs were no longer there. My eyes almost fell out when I saw it, my heart ready to jump out too from shock. Below my pelvis, streaming off smoke as if chimneys, lay tiny stumps of metal work, wires loosely hanging off the edge, melted away at the ends. I watched, helplessly and unsure, as more robots marched in, their heavy footsteps echoing in my mind. Cursing in my head and aloud, I figured we would be safe if I could still run, only the fastest jet robots could keep up with me. But no, now an robot could outrun us, wiping us out in a few seconds.

" Sonic?" Said Shadow, sounding apprehensive " What's going on?". I sighed.

" We're screwed Shadow, totally and utterly screwed"

AUTHORS NOTES

I'm sorry for being ages before I updated, I was buisy with other fic but they have been deleted, so I have no choice but to continue this one.


	8. How can a machine blush?

How can a machine blush?

" Screwed? Why?" Asked Shadow. I didn't respond through dread. " Sonic?" Asked Shadow, more forcefull this time. I didn't have time to think as the robots laser like up again, beginning to shake through stored energy. Without any explantion I grabbed hold of Shadows shoulders and yelled

"RUN!". Shadow didn't argue. I felt the pull of speed on my body as Shadow jets activated. Luckely , we could still escape and one of us could still run. There was just one problem though, the one who was running couldn't see, and a robot almost ten times our height stood infront of us, his laser looking almost overloading in it's haste to fire. " Left! LEFT!" I yelled at the top of my lungs into Shadows ears. He swerved, just as the laser beam jumped out of it's cannon, obliterating the ground we had been occupying moments ago. The smell of burning reached our noses and Shadow seemed just then to realise just how much danger we were in. I felt him putting more pressure on his jets, the pounding of his feat increaded. I put a stronger hold on his chest, hoping I would be able to hold on until we got out of here.

We had outrun the offending robot, but there were still a million more in this base alone.

" Right!" I screached, when I noticed Shadow was just about to smash into the end of the corridor. He skidded voilently and I almost feel off, just rescuing my grip my grabbing hold of Shadow's neck.

" Sonic, I can't breath!" He rasped. I clenched my teeth in desperation. I couldn't let go to adjust, that would send me spiralling to the other end of the corridor, leaving Shadow without a navigator. But if I didn't do anything, Shadow would suffocate, the pull of speed was making it impossible to grip lightly, but if we stopped, we'd be doomed.

I almost had a heart attack when Shadow began to slow, the lack of oxygen beginning to show. I risked loosening my grip a little and just managed to keep a hold of his neck, only becuase I he had slowed down to almost half the speed. Shadow took a huge breath and started to speed up again. My heart lightened a little, although it still beat rediculously fast and I managed to change to position of my hands and realease the strangle hold on Shadows neck.

But the decrease in speed had cost us and I found the hovering, plane like machines catching up, their foul spicky plates cutting through the air in perfection as they sailed towards us. " RIGHT!" I yelled again and Shadow jerked around, narrowly missing a robot that transported infront of us. Suddenly , one appeared by our sides and another just behind, materialising in a second. My eyes darted around as I saw our escape become blocked. I had no time to think, not time to react. The robots just kept appearing, some teleporting in, others catching up from the end of the corridor. My breaths came fast I saw Shadow approaching, at full pelt, a dead end.

I had no time to shout out as he collided full force with it, recataying off and sending me sliding down the floor, my head coming to rest at a robots foot. I looked up to see it's evil ,red eyes staring down at me. My head darted to veiw Shadow, who was getting up of the floor and blinding feeling along the wall. A sound of scrapping metal was heard as the robot above me raised it's machine gun. Shadow tentativly got to his feet, just as the gun got ready to fire.

" Get down!" I yelled in panic, and Shadow obidently dropped to the steel floor, as the pannel behind him was riddled with bullets. It dropped, reaveling a new room inside, flashing with many artificial colours. Its floor strewn with vein like wires, energy pulsation through to from the middle of a room, a tiny speck of light shining, like radiation brightness. Then I realised. I realised what it was and, for time in what felt like years, my mind shone like the now smoke covered sun.

I grabbed Shadows arms again and ordered him to run at full pelt. The other robots began firing and soon the whole room was lit up with sparks as the silver bullets reflected of the walls and cut through the cabels , sending a strange looking, thick liquid oozing over the floor. Thankfully , Shadow had the sence to run away from the gun noises and I found my self being run right into the source of the light and obviosly the power source for the city. No wonder their were so many robots around, their entire metropolis was being run from this point, and we were going to take it.

I reached out carefully with one arm, my other one gripping Shadows shoulder tightly, and snatched it. The reaction was incredable.

First of all, the pipes that led away from it went dim, no longer flashing with artificial brilliance. Next they began to spontaniosly explode, spewing liquid all over the robots that were just a few feet behind us. The machanicial giants plating hissed and split as soon as the mixture hit them , and they dropped to the ground, blocking the way for the others behind them. Finnaly, the base it's self seemed to shut down. The lights dimmed, flickered and finnaly gave way. The churning of the main engine and machanics slowly ground to an ungraceous halt. All of the robots shut down, their bodies slumping and the hovering ones simply crashing to the ground. I asked Shadow to stop when we had excited the room and ran far enough down another long corridor, realising there was no more danger in this ghost city. I thrust the object into Shadows hand and said

" All right Shadow, let's get out of here". He felt the object in his hand, a look of mild confusion and cluelessness plaged his face.

" A chaos emerald? Where did you get it from?" He said, sounding a little beweildered. I snickered and said

" I nicked it". Shadows rolled his eyes.

" Great, my only hope of survival is a theiving clone"he said, sounding somewhat dry. My smiled lessened and I said, getting inpatient

" All right! Let's go already". Shadows face turned to one of frustration and he said

" How the hell do you expect me to do that? I can't use chaos control anymore, I have to be able to SEE where im going".

His words echoed in my mind. He had see where he was going, the one thing he couldn't do anymore.

" Great" I said, realising my grip on Shadows chest and slumping on the floor. I would have sat, but I didn't even have legs anymore, so I feel ungraciosly flat on my face. I groaned as Shadow helped me up. He let me lean on him so I didn't fall over anymore. My fists clenched infrustration. We had shut the entire city down, disabled every robot in the vecinity and managed to gain posession of a chaos emerald, but now we were stuck becuase the doors were firmly shut, not a problems for the robots with their teleporters, but deadly to us, one blind hedgehog and a broken down robot clone. I halfheartedly explaned the situation to Shadow, who listened in silence. When I was done, his hand lifted from its position by his side. He moved it around cluelessly for a while before finding my chest. Once there he kept moving it down, down to the stumps of legs that I now had.

" You don't mind?" He asked. I shrugged and said

" Go ahead, it's just machinary". With my approval he continued, his fungers tracing the outlines of the pipes. They moved down further, for a second touching the wires that were now exposed.

" Shit!"he exclamed, immidiatly removing his hand from the wires. I tilted my head in curiosity and asked what had happened. Shadow smiled slightly and replied " Electric shock". I half laughed.

It was just then that I noticed what position we were both in. Shadow lay against the wall, my back leaning into his chest. Is hand lay near my hip, the place he had dropped it after my exposed wire had electrocuted him. Our heads almost side by side. I hadn't noticed it before, I was too preoccupied worrying how to get out of here. But now, I had and was alarmed to discover that I was infact, blushing.

How could a machine blush? I felt Shadow sigh against my back and my heartbeat began to quicken. " I just thought" he suddenly said, making me break out of my train of thought. " If I had a hard time these few years, imagine how you have felt. Thinking , thinking you were Sonic. Knowing you were Sonic, then having your reality swept away from you, even your identity. I can't imagine how hard its been". I gave a cold laugh and said

" Yeah, its been like hell. But I tell you something, getting your legs blown off isn't exactly a treat either". Shadows hand reached up and touched my exposed eye.

" It doesn't seem like your a machine Sonic, your just the same as always, except...". I frowned and said in a harsh, cold voice

" Except im made out of metal and have about as much right to call you faker as all the other androids out there". Shadow shock his head and said

" No. Your different, older, smarter, more mature". He stroaked my ear in an almost tender way. I shivered at his touch " You've grown up". I gave another icy laugh and said in a dull tone

" We all have". This time Shadow shook his head.

" Your wrong Sonic, you've grown up, but we've grown old" he said. I laughed to myself, Shadow was always wise, but now it seemed as if he had all the knowlegde in the world. I was about to reply when the lights flickered back on and a comperised voice rung down the corridors.

" The main power source has been shut down. Emergency proceders activated. Secondary power to the self descructe systems. Evacuate. Evacuate". I let off a couple of words I shouldn't have and Shadow jerked in alarm, thinking more robots had found us. I paniced even more as a count down began. Ten , nine. Shadow jumped to his feet and began running down the corridor, stopping soon after when he realised he had left me. Seven, six , five, four. I threw my head around, looking for any exit that might suddenly appear. Then it hit me. Without thinking I grabbed the emerald, thrust my hand around Shadows leg and shouted the words as powerfully as I could.

" CHAOS...CONTROL!"


	9. Drugs at 11

What a strange feeling. I had experianced chaos control before and everytime it had felt the same. The surge of energy, the feeling of weightlessness as the pull as your body is shifted else ware. But these had been Sonic memories, the way Sonic had felt them with his own, flesh and bone body. But let me tell you, a machine feels very differently to a living being.

It was as if something had suddenly turned my systems over to full power. I felt a thousand times more electricity gush through me with force so strong I couldn't imagine how the wire frame could contain it. I felt the pull of the chaos energy pulsate through my body, sending it into violent convulsions as I was pulled through the fabric of space and time. The feeling was intence, incredable. I felt as if I were dying and feeling truly alive at the same time.

How this feeling could have only lasted for a second, I didn't know. But before I knew it, the surge of energy stopped and I found myself outside, in the decolate feilds of this future, the machine city a few miles away, it mightly spires reaching out into the sky as if to scratch there way through the murky cloud cover that blacked out the light. All around us, silence. I looked around as Shadow stood up, looking around. Only the slight whistle of the wind reached our ears and only its soft push ruffled our fur. The world was at peice.

BOOM! Echoed the load, roar from the machine city as its insides blew out, propelled by a great fire as the bomb tore the place to peices. Shadow was knocked of of his feat by the impact. I simply sat and started in awe. My pupils widdened as the great explotion of molten light radiated from the buiding. The simple amount of light was breathtacking, as if the sun itself had been replaced. But soon the brilliant amber flames burned into murky brown ones and the grey shell of the city was reavealed, an ugly monument to pollute the sky line. Great heards of smoke piled out of it, polluting the sky above even more. My shoulders dropped in depresion. The moment of lifting provided by the bomb only sheltered me from the truth for a few seconds. This world was still a dying one.

" So, we escaped" said Shadow. He was standing, staring into the distance. He couldn't see the explosion, but it was obviosly load enough to actract his attention. I sighed and said

" Yep, but I still need to be fixed. And theres only one person I know who could do it". Shadow nodded.

" Jarula?"he quered.

" Jarula" I confirmed, smiling.

A sign hung on the door. A plate of metal with the words ' Bars closed, so piss off ' scratched onto it. I ignored it and pushed open the door. As Shadow staggered into the tiny pub that I had seen only a few times before, I noticed the whole room was empty. I directed Shadow to the back room and as I approached, I began to hear music.

_Well im standing by the river _

_But the water doesn't flow_

_It boils with every poison, you can think of_

_ And im underneath the street light_

_ But the lighted joy I know_

_ Is scared beyond belief, we're down in the shadows_

_ And the perverted fear of violence_

_ Chokes the smile on every face_

_ The commen sence is ringing, out the bells_

_ This ain't no technological breakdown. Oh no, this is the road, to hell_

_"_ Jarula?" I called out, tencing up in Shadow arms as he carried me, almost like a bride. I didn't feel much like a bride, more like a coffin dew corpse. I saw something move in the deepest shadows of the room. I strained my eyes and saw the long snout of a crocodile.

" Clone!" He said, in a mixture of shock and anger. Shadow senced the danger in the situation and added his voice to the conversation

" Jarula, it's me, Shadow". The young crocodile came out of darkness that lurked in the far corner, so for the first time I could see his features. His eyes were tired and red and so blood shot I feared they would explode. An ugly purple brooze was forming where Knuckles had used the crocodiles fathers gun to knock out his son. His eyes showed the fear within in, but also the confusion.

" Your alive? I can't belive it! I thought those metal bitches had killed you". Next his eyes feel on me. It didn't take long for the surprise and look of hope to leave his expression. As quick as a flash he snatched a small pistol from the table and pointed it straight at my chest. " Why did you bring that thing back with you!" He demanded, his voice wavered. He feared me. A broken down, useless robot. His nerves must have been shot.

" Sonic rescued me and you'll not shot him while im around, unless you want to follow him afterwards" said Shadow. His voice steady yet intimidating. Jarula stared Shadow directly into the eye, his snout held high while his eyes seemed to be calculating.

" Your making a mistack" he simply grunted and slouched of into corner again. The small desk he sat at was lit by a single candle, it lonly light flickered uneasily. The table was strewn with papers, a small device that looked like a communicator and a large battery cell, caked in dust.

The crocodile bent over the papers, picking up a little stick from a tray and taking a deep sniff.

" Jarula! You shouldn't do that at your age!" I said. The young crocodile was barely 11 and was already using the hardcore drugs that I feared to touch. The crocodile looked at me like a peice of vermin he longed to shot and gave a great choke as sickening smoke spilled out of his mouth.

" Who cares? Dad ent' around to stop me, that bastard Knuckles took care of that". His statement reminded me of what Knuckles had said. He appeared in my mind, the image of his face, shadowed by his dreadlocks. His eyes full of despair, fear, desperation. ' I did it, for her' said his gruff voice, weakened by my anger fueled assalt, as he dissapeared into the gloom of the machine city. I gasped. We had blown up that place, the blast radius was huge, there was no way he could have ever survived that, he was chained down and beaten to the edge of life. I felt my heart sink like a lead weight. I couldn't belive it, another freind, dead, becuase of me...

" Knuckles is gone" I said, as Shadow was bending over to put me down. He stopped at my statement, obviosly he hadn't realised what had happened to Knuckles either. Jarula gave an uncomfertable shuffle, smoke curling from his nostrols. If I wasn't feeling so sick, I would have laughed at the fact that he looked like some kind of demented dragon. It was immpossible to laugh in these surroundings...

" Serves him right for bretraying us" he said, but I could there was no meaning behind his words. We all felt the sadness of the fact that Knuckles was gone. I guess becuase he wanted to change the subject, Jarula picked up a tool from his desk and announced " I guess i'll have to fix you then, but im warning you, clone, one false move and your legs wont be the only thing thats been blown off" he growled threateningly. I sighed and let him put me to sleep. Im not sure how he did it, as aniscetic obviosly didn't work on robots. But when my vision came back to me I realised I was now the proud owner of a new pair of legs. Covered neatly and naturally in a thin coat of skin and fur, my eye now back to normal and even my glove replaced. I tested my legs, flexing them and wriggeling my toes. It felt as if a sudden numbness that used to control the lower half of my body was miraculously lifted. I sat upwrite, feeling incredably powerful now I could move around once more. It was amazing, my legs were even a little longer. I wasn't sure if he had done it on purpose, or most likely he didn't have the right material to make my legs to the old length, but Jarula had made me taller!


	10. Guardian angels?

" Your up. Good" said Jarula from his stooping desk. He sounded like he didn't really care if I woke up or not, but at that point it didn't matter to me that my freinds son didn't give a crap about me, or if I was some fack robot copy of a long dead hero. Becuase I wasn't broken anymore, I wasn't parilised! " Check to see if they are workin' ok. I'm ain't sure if I graphted the sinthetic skin to your joints properly, so check if you can-". But by this point I was doing to can-can in the middle of the room. " Oh. I guess it's workin' fine then" the crocodile mumbled. His eyes showed the first sign of a good emotion since I had met him and he said half to himself " That's the first time i've done anything like that". This time he directly adressed me, " Are you impressed with how I fixed you? Huh?" He urged me. I grinned and said in my old cheerful accent.

" You bet Jarula!" I said, giving him a thumbs up. A small slip of a grin appeared on his face and he tried to hide it, seemingly determined to maintain his air of arrogance.

" I bet you didn't expect the skin back too, huh?" He continued, trying to prize more compliments from me, and I wasn't in the mood to refuse.

" Yeah. You did an amazing job! Although I didn't used to be this tall..." I added. This killed the crocodiles fledgling confidence and he pouted the best a crocodile can. " But I don't mind. Im taller than Shadow now" I added onto the end, resulting in the crocodile to grin again. I guess he never expected compliments from me since he had basicically treated me like dirt ever since I had got here. " Speaking of him, Where is Shadow?" I asked when the thought crossed my mind that he was no longer in the room. Jarula dropped the smug look, exchanging it for the typical, expresionless, teenager mask.

" Tellin' war stories" he gave a gruff chuckle and grinned. " Old git spends 8 months sitting on his ass in some cell and still gets all the glory, typical". I smiled back, glad that for once, Jarula was actually on MY side.

Our next stop was the pub, out through the room we had entered through. True enough, here was Shadow, sitting in the middle of a group of admirers, and looking as if he was hating every minete of it. I smiled at my... Sonic's old freind's sombre personality, one which still hadn't changed over all these years.

As I entered the fray, the creatures diverted their attention away from Shadow, to me. They all held wary gazes, even though I hadn't given them any reason not to trust me. Shadow on the other hand, looked relived that the attention was away from him. The moment of uncomfertable staring didn't last long however, as a huge, ear splitting alarm rang out through the whole building, causing us all the cover our ears. The others looked around in panic, some of them rushing out of the other room while others took out their weapons and started loading them, ready for use.

" What's happening!" I yelled in the confusion. Jarula stopped halfway through strapping grenades to his belt and said

" The attack alarm. We got company". I gulped. I wasn't ready to take on more robots, espicially since I had just escaped and been repaired. This time, it may not be my legs that get blown off, and i'm pretty sure my luck wasn't going to hold any longer.

" How many?" I asked. Jarual pulled down a rusting peroscope from a trap door in the ceiling and pulling it round so I could look. I really wished I hadn't, or that I was hullutionating or something stupid like that. The sheer mass of the robots made the whole thing almost seem fluid, like a huge wave of death. Many of them seemed to be ordinary, shock tropper robots, with plain armour and one rist mounted gun. But at the back, towering over the rest, stood a long line of enemy mechs, almost four times the height of the robots that stood infront of them, all carrying guns that looked like they could have blown the other half of the moon away, and all aimed at us. But what shocked me most of all, was the robot that led them. Tiny in comparison to the rest, it's animal like features provided more graceful movements while its red eyes somehow created a look of evil and hatred.

My breath caught in my throat, I shouted in a wavering voice to Jarula

" Tails is here! And it looks like he bought the whole of the robot army with him!". Apparently not beliving me, Jarula shoved me aside to veiw the scope. I would have been angered my this, but right now we had bigger things to worry about.

" Shit!" Exclaimed Jarula. I grimmanced at his language. He turned to the creatures in the room, who were loading their guns in silence panic. There were only about 20 of us in the room, one who couldn't fight becuase he couldn't see and one who was currently suffering from a severe cause of depression. " Ok guys. I need Mat, Prowler, Silver storm and Master chief to opperate the mini guns. Grunt , you set up the reflectory plasma sheild. And Shadow, you get out of here" ordered Jarula in a voice of authority I didn't think he could muster. The others didn't argue, even if their orders were from a 11 year old crack addict , they must have had some faith to obay like that. Or maybe they were just plain scared. I wanted to think it was the first option. As the creatures who's names had called filed away, Jarula turned to the rest of them. " Do you think that our defence system is ready to go Scurvey?" He asked a greying alley cat. The feline narrowed his wild eyebrows in thought and finnaly answered with

" I'm guessing it will have to be". Jarula gave a grim nod and said

" Fire it up, all of you" he said, causing the remaining creatures to leave the room, leaving me and him standing in the middle of an empty pub. The young crocodile gave a heavy sigh, his shoulders sagging, seeming not to notice me for a while. The dark circles under his eyes made me realise just how much the war must have aged him and why he must have been so jealous of me, I used to have the perfect life that he never got.

" What about me?" I asked innoscently. The crocodile jumped a little at my comment, and answered with an uncertain

" Go outside and help with the front line fighters. They'll follow your orders hopefully. When over half of them are dead, make a sensible retreat and... And..." He didn't finish his sentance.

" Report to you?" I offered in help. Jarula actually laughed at my comment, saying

" This ain't the army. But yeah, come and find me and I should have something else for you to do". I saluted and said

" Yes sir" and the crocodile grinned at my silly behavior. He wondered into the back room of the dindgy bar, ducking to avoid the low ceiling. " What are you doing?" I called into the darkness. Jarulas muffled reply came as

" To get my guardian angels". I had a breif thought of Jarula coming out accompanied by two glowing crocodiles with halos and velvet wings, but instead the crocodile emerged with with a small collection of objects bundled into his arms. He unhooked a packet of cigars and loaded them into a specially placed pocket in the upper section of him left arm, along with a lighter. Next his placed a specially designed helmet with earphones built in and slid a small chip into the side of it. " Track 7, don't fail me now" he said, and kissed his disk before pressing play. The music was so load even I could hear it, but I suspose in a battle feild the music had to be ear bleedingly load, or Jarula just like to be temporarlilly death.

Suddenly, the whole place came alive. The force knocked me off my feat as the walls rumbled. I looked to Jarula as if to ask him what was going on, but he just ave me a sly grin as if to say ' it's a surprise'. Suddenly, from beneath a panel in the middle of the floor which I had always over looked, rose a huge platform, equip with a seat almost lost in the mess of a tangle of a huge guns wrapped in their own ammo and facing the seat was a control pannel that looked like several weird keyboard badly welded together. On it's way up Jarula scrambled over the guns, ammo and pipes that made up the whole contraption, seating himself comfertably , or not so, in the seat. I gave him a thumbs up, but he seemed to have his game face on, and told me to go outside.

I figured his good mood wouldn't last long.

Outside , around 30 of us were gathered, mouting turrets in the mud. The rain beat down and even made the task of standing up hard. I didn't know how I was going run in this hell hole either, but I suposed I would have to. I still couldn't use a gun. Is sighed, thinking how it didn't feel good to be useless.

As I walked amoung the other animals, they cast unsure looks at me. They knew what I was, and i'm sure some of them had as much hatred for me as they did for the robots that were heading for our base. But now wasn't the time to argue about my trust. Right now the hundreds of robots that were marching towwards us with the sheer purpose of our extermination seemed to be more of a concern than just one who had somehow gotten a little taller. A young cat rushed up to me in a frightened scurry.

" Jaruala told us to do what you tell us" he said, seeming to avert his eyes as if he were afraid of me. His frindge falling wet in his eyes. I nodded. Although I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I had no experiance ordering anyone around. But the animals around me seemed to know exactly what they were doing.

" Just carry on doing that" I said, pointing to animals installing the guns. The cat hesitated for a second before replying uncertainly

" We, we've finished". I looked around clueless. I was making a fool of myself infront of diehard guarilla fighters who would shot me without second thought if they thought I was too much bother to be kept around. I didn't have time to say something else stupid as a load horn echoed through the rainy air and reflected off the weathered buildings that were clinging to life.

" What does that mean!" I yelled in panic, completly forgetting to try and keep up an image infront of my ' soldiers'. The teenage cat was staring, with eyes full of fear, into the distance, from the place the rour of the horn had origenated from.

" There here" he simply said. I looked and sure enough, rising over the mud built hill sprinkled with broken buildings and wreckage, came the opponent. First , the robotic form of tails emerged from the peak, creating the illusion of a singular army. But next, hundreds of robots spilled over the top, rampaging like rats towards us. Dozens and dozens of guns emerged from panels, too many robotic legs stomped forward, the soft squealsh of the mud providing no problem for them, and I doubted we would either. Finnaly, the collasal giant-like mechs emerged over the hill, the giant , 10-metre guns rested atop their backs, menasingly shinning in the low light. I had no doubt we would lose, unless this new defence system was something close to a miricle, we were dead.

Tails raised his arm, stopping the whole sea of robots almost immidiatly in their tracks. There was now around half a mile between us and the thousands of enemy bullets. The animals around me mounted their turrets, readed their grenades, a couple climbed onto the roof to provide snipers. But it was not nearly enough, we all knew that. We were all placing our faith in this new defence system.

Suddenly , our near by radio cracked to life, and the voice which poored out of it made me freeze with terror.

" Hello clone". I gulped and didn't respond, instead waiting for Tails to say more. He did. " Didn't think you could get away from me that easily did you? Shame on you. Your destiny lies with us. We created you, you are one of us, and I was willing to give you a second chance. But since you destroyed our city and stole our emerald, i've had a bit of a change of heart".

" Tails you peice of crap" said Jarualas voice as it came from the radio, who had obviosly been listening and had now desided to respond through his own radio. I even faintly heard music, he still had his ear phones on. Just like his father.

" Language young reptile" said Tails, obviosly enjoying toying with Jarula's and my emotions. Here was a huge army of deadly robots. Ready when ordered to come and tear us apart, peice by peice and we were having a casual conversation about minding our language. The strain was almost unbearable.

" Fuck you" he replied. I gritted my teeth in panic. Any moment now Tails would set his army on us, and Jarula's 'negosiating' wasn't helping. There was silence for a while. Probably only about 3 minetes, but to us, standing in the doorway of hell with the murky, spiked robots hovering in the distance, their hard faces trained straight on us, it seemed like a horrible, heart- hammering life time.

" Hmm. I honestly thought Vector would raise you better. I guess i'll have to teach you a lesson" Replied the radio, and in a terrifying instant the whole group of machines started up again. The wave was in motion, and we were going to get hit full force with a sea of carniviorus bullets.

" Watch this everyone" said Jarula's voice once again. I looked around just in time to see huge poles with narled spikes forcing their way out of our hideouts roof. Next , turrents emerged from trap doors, two for each side of the building. These too were loaded with a creature controller and mismatched guns stuck to there sides, while shelds covered the fronts. Next, through the center of the base rose Jarula himself, rising out of the building like some kind of machanical angel, sitting in his turret. One final spine thrust it's way out of the building and hundreds of defenfive guns revealed themselves from hidden panels in the walls. A rumble shock the ground as a bright light blinded our eyes temporarilly. When the glare had died I realised that the spines that emerged from the buildings were in fact conductors, providing a framework for a shimmering, wavering electric blue sheild that now covered not only the whole, fortified base, but also the group of no longer vunerable group of creatures that I had been placed in command of. Words cannot describe how relived I felt at that point.

Then , the wave hit us. Just a few seconds after the sheild had powered up, the first row of enemy humanoid robots hit us, there guns blazing as they sent their metal shells spiralling towards us. But they never did. The fantastic looking sheild turned out also to be a magnificent defence, sending the bullet straight back at almost the same angel from the barrels which they arrived from.

" Fire!" I yelled unnessarilly, and the turrets around me began to spill out their readilly waiting ammo into the enemy. But the first row of robots also had sheilds, and I knew from experiance that those were hard to crack. Our own bullets copied the act of the enemies and jumped off the sheild of metel devils. A few of the creatures piled grendades into the further away lines and managed to do some damage, while the mechs shot their thunder like blasts at our sheild from the back. I saw Tails flitting in and out of the robots, commanding them and doing whatever he was supposed to do. I wasn't sure what to do myself, the creatures around me seemed to have a good idea as to what to do without my help , and the thunder of bullets and grenade blast made it almost immpossible to be heard more than a few meters away. I took a glace at Jarula, finding him firing his many guns into the enemy ranks, and singing along to his songs while he did it. I smiled at this. He sure did like his music.

But there situation caused a stale mate, and I was beggining to think that if we kept wasting bullets, we would run out, leaving us incredably vunerable if our sheild went out too. I sucked in breath and bellowed for everyone who wasn't throwing grenades to stop firing. It took a while for the message to spead and the turrets slowly ratteled to a halt, their turrets spining to a stop.

" What's the plan...Sonic" said the same teenage cat who had adressed me earlier. I had a feeling that he was going to call me ' clone' but decided not to. Good thing he did to, all I needed was a reminder that, in someways, I was a traitor. I activated my outdated radio and said

" Jaruala, we got a situation here".

" I know, my batteries have run out" he replied, sounding stressed. It took me a couple of minetes to figure out what he was talking about. But then I realised his music player had no power left.

" No, I mean, we can't get to their robots". The sea of firing had stopped on the enemies side too, obviosly having the sames concerns about ammo that we did. I heard Jarula curse loudly and he said

" Oh! Right, yeah...um. Any suggestions?". Great , after making out himself to be a confident, war general, our savour and hero, he was asking me, a cloned hegdehog who couldn't even spell the word bazooca, what to do next. Luckly, or probably more unluckly, Tails decided to make the decition for me, and a chill ran down my metalic spine when he yelled the word

" Advance!". I looked at the emerald statched saftly in my hand, as the mountain of metalic death sprawled towards us. For all the effort I put in too steal it, it hadn't done us any good. In fact, if it wasn't for the emerald, these robots may not be storming towards us, ready to rip us apart. But then, if I hadn't used it, would have ever escaped the city?

By now the robots had swarmed around our sheild, creating an terrifying cage, trapping us like animals ready for the slaughter, which, in reality, we were. Well, most of us anyway...

Jarula and the other two mega gunners still burried their ammo into the robots that were unlucky enough to be in range, firing over the protetive sheilds the frontal shoulders possessed. But our inpact was insignificant, and if I knew Tails, which I used to, he would be able to find some way around our sheild, and then...i didn't want to think about what would happen after that.

Tails stood, almost like a ghost, his blank eyes staring right into me through the liquid skinned sheild. His body wavered like that of a phantom through the sheilds guarding wall, but I was unnerved by his presence all the same. He gave his own equivalent of a grin on what was left of his face and raised his left arm, once again letting it shift into a small cannon and tank, the same one that he had used to show me the truth about my origen. That memory didn't help my confidence.

But instead of filling up with an exotic liquid compound which I had never even heard of, it flowed with a bluish kind of water, sparks radiating of the liquid itself it seemed. Nothing I had ever seen in my life compared the tiny, electron charged substance swimming around in Tails mutilated arm. Miniture lightening jumped out of the container and swarmed around the fox robots arm. I knew exactly what he was going to do with it, and I felt my heart stop.

" What's he doing Sonic?" I heard Jarula yell through the radio over the rumble of gunfire. I couldn't reply, frozen in pure helplessness. The others around me fired their turrets, their grenades, anything they could send in the direction of Tails. But the sparks from this radioactive paradox seemed even to deflected their bullets. That mean it was powerful, very powerful.

The robots he led stood, silent, as gunfire continued to pick of their numbers. They didn't even bother to move, they knew that once our sheild was down, they would forfil their absent desire for revenge, and Jarula, raised aboth everyone else, the bullets he fired relentlessly guiding enemy attention to him. Like an angel he was surrounded by their sparking light, and he would be the first to fall. Toasted by the mechs that lurked at the back of the enemy, towered over the others. I couldn't face that thought, he had helped me, and I knew I had to repay him. Somehow.

Tails squirted the substance at the patch of sheild he was nearest to, the bullets my allies firing not bothered him in the slightest. The nearest robots swarmed around him, eagally trying to get in line for the first shots at our rain soaked fur, and the flesh beneath it. I felt utterly useless, I couldn't even waste the ammo of a gun trying to kill him of.

The sheild almost immidiatly began to flicker and waver in unstable protection. The sparks from Tails mystery liquid traveled up and down it's lenght and bit into it's skin, invading and consuming whatever energy our sheild had left. The liquid was emptied from Tails tank, and buisy killing our sheild, harvesting it's energy, like a plague of locusts wasting away our life line. The robots eyes flashed and he punched through the weakest point of the sheild, and , to my alarm, it's liquid form shattered. With crazed bloodthirstyness Tails tried to squirm his way through the gap, thrasing and twisting as he broke his way through. Some of the bullets hit him now, but the little damage they did, didn't stop his quest for our defeat. All the time his evil red eyes were fixed onto me, burning into my soul and freezing my core with fear.

As soon as he was through he lept into the air, gracefully dogding the panicing bullets that followed him, prancing around and twisting around our pittiful defences. The other robots were not yet able to gte through yet, but it was only a matter of time. I knew I had to do something, so out of sheer instint I spun into a spin dash, racing towards the dancing fox and smashing into him with force that would have normally demolished an ordinary robot. But Tails was no ordinary robot, and he simply requoiled my attack, sending me sprawling face down into thr mud, it's heavy sludge creating a powerful suction and holding me down. I managed to turn over to veiw the scene, but I wished I hadn't, nothing I had seen so far could prepare me for what I saw take place infront of me.

Slaughter.

He was but one robot, the others still not through, although our sheild weakened every second. But his destruction was unbearable. Corpses from the already dead lines the floor, their necks mutilated in every angle I thought possible, blood mixing with mud to create a foul paint. A frenzy of misfired bullets flew through the air, chasing the fox that still torchured us with deliberate delay in murder.

He set himself down, his claws forcing their way through the gut of the young cat who had called me by my true name. I felt a tear come to my eye, I felt sick, I felt dead inside and I felt as if I had slipped into hell. Tails smashed the skull of another creature, it's insides splattering on Tails dead plating. I started shuddering, my vision went wild. His newly emerged cannon arm sent insides spraying in every direction, a new kill every moment. I couldn't take it anymore. The body's, lying unholy on the ground, wasted lives, murdered by my best freind. He had to pay, he had to be punished.

He had to die.

I screamed. A scream like no other I had ever realised in my life. That scream scared even myself, but I was slowly retreating inside my own mind, my fury creating a new be, a demonic me. Only one thought ran through my brain. Kill him.

I stood, slowly. My cheast heaving. Beast-like snarls immitiing from me. My eyes locked, like those of a cobra ready to strike. I clenched my fists, grinded my teeth. Fury flowing through me, and charged, my fist smashing into Tails face, knocking him of balence. He looked shocked at my sudden uprise, but I wasn't about to stop any time soon, I began tearing at his panels, long lines of wire snaking round my shaking hands, Tails grimmancing in shock, and perhaps in pain. But at that point, the robots broke through the remaining sheild, their guns ripping through me and the remaining animals that lay, cowering in the mud. The further mass of shed blood only intensified my desire for destruction, and another scream of rage was let out by my mouth. I saw the mechs readying themselves to fire at Jarulas turret, and whatever was left of my logical mind screamed for me to help him, and so, I lept off of Tails, smashing through the robots that had began to tumble through the whole in the sheild, their bullets fired at me and missed, ripping up their own kind as I sped through their mass of bodies. As I ran, I felt something shift within me, and even my rage seemed to slip away, leaving behind a void of emotionless drive to kill. Then, something cracked, and as I ran I saw my hands shifting, changing, the skin and ripping away as my mettalic finger rearranged themselves into a arm mounted gun. If I wasn't so pumped up on my desire to destroy, I would have fainted from shock. But that wasn't all that happened, next, my chest split open and a barrel burst out, heavy and hellmade. Finnaly , my back burst open, and my rips shifted themselves into deadly arms, fingers and hands replaced with a sythe like blade.

My transformation only fueled my efforts, and soon, I let loose the bolts of lightening generated by my arm cannons, disintigrating every robot within a 5 meter radios of me. I sped along, almost feeling as if I were gliding, slicing the robots around me with my snaking claws that had sprouted from my back, my guns blasting any robots that got in my way.

Finnaly, I was in range of the mechs. They had each noticed me by now, but I didn't care. It was time for my chest cannon to come into play. It loaded missle made of compacted air, so heavily squeezed It would peirce anything. With gritted teeth I let loose the blast at the nearest mech, and it burst out of me with so much force I was slipped over backwards. But I quickly righted myself, and , like an expert, I loaded the cannon again, while the first mech burned in flames, I shot the second, just before It could fire it's own cannon. Again and again I fire, dodging their own slow blasted like Tails had done with our bullets. I was so sure of victory, that was, until, I felt my arms go heavy, and I could no longer support my large new adaptions. I slumped on the floor, just as my vison went blank. My power was gone, and one mech still had it's cannon trained on Jarula's turret, ready to fire.


End file.
